A Wanted Rose
by rwbybomb21
Summary: Ruby is the last of the wolf Faunus, but then why is she abused by her own kind? Why is she labelled a criminal by humans and Faunus and where will she find someone to help her through the dark times of her life, when pain is just around the corner?Torture and pain is all she's known so how will she manage when she's thrown into Beacon academy? Art credit to whoever made it.
1. Meet The Reaper

**A Wanted Rose: Chapter 1**

The darkness held back by the light. This was how it should be, and as the street was illuminated by numerous and otherwise uncountable streetlights that scattered the area, the night looked almost perfect; that is, perfect if not for the numerous patrolling officers of the Vale Police Department- VPD for short- and the uncountable wanted posters of a little girl in a red hood and cloak.

Thrown out at birth, Ruby Rose- or Reaper, as the officials and civilians alike had take to calling her, as they didn't know her real name because there were no records of her- had it harder than any Faunus. Having to defend herself from humans and even other Faunus alike, she grew from her sunny disposition to people to having seen the world in grey, not black and white.

Currently, she was wanted for crimes that would make Roman Torchwick himself feel sick at what they accused her of. She was accused of numerous accounts of murder, assault, burglary, pick pocketing, stealing from Schnee Dust Company trains and more.

All of these, of course, were false allegations. But people either didn't care to look into it or never bothered, seeing as she was a wolf Faunus, after all. She never knew why Faunus hated her as well, though she had heard one Faunus while they beat her until she started to bleed out from her injuries at the age of seven that wolf Faunus were the lowest of them all. Ruby then began to hate the world and everyone in it, and so went to the White fang, hearing of their involvement in some Faunus Rights protests, claiming they were seeking equality for all Faunus. Of course, she was naive back then and figured they meant her kind as well, and so went to them to try and help any way she could.

She was battered, stabbed, slashed, burnt, had her ribs broken and thrown out of the place until she almost died; again.

When she was nine she made her sniper scythe, Crescent Rose. The name wasn't just a name, it had a meaning to it; it meant that she felt like a Crescent Rose, just a shade of what she was now.

Ruby was still innocent and childish, no matter what got in her way, but she could be serious and cold. Nervousness was what she would usually feel though, as she had a hard time making friends or even talking to humans. She had a small success rate with talking to other Faunus, but she would never reveal her nature or real name, using aliases like Scarlet and Jade.

She stood away from the edge of a cliff and stepped away from the altar that lay there, walking down into the pit of beowolves she knew she would have to fight. Walking through the trees was not a problem, neither was her upcoming fight with the creatures of Grimm; it was the fact that these creatures would usually howl and growl really loud and it would surely attract Hunter attention if she were not careful to dispatch them quickly.

She arrived, and as usually and silently given, they were there. It would start off as just three of them, and then there would be five, seven, and ten. It would then multiply to the twenties, then the fifties, and finally into the two hundred range. She never had a problem with dealing with them, and never took a hit while she did so.

She did her usual waiting. She would do this every time; lure the Grimm into her and disappear at the last possible second, arrive above them and shoot them dead before the even spotted her. After this she would land in a roll and shoot off three more, switching her scythe into its full glory and sniping off eleven more, before slicing two into ribbons and another three into shreds. After this she would use her recoil from the gun to shoot herself up into the air, kill three Grimm that would pursue her into the air, block a forth one and then come to a screeching halt, using her scythe to slow her backwards sliding from the blow.

After this, she would go into a full on death dance of murder, slicing full beowolves into two and four, quartering some and even turning some to sludge. After it all, she would continue to the small temple of which she made her new home.

She did do all of this, and on the way to returning to her 'home' she caught an unfamiliar whiff of an unmistakeable scent of human. That was later proven to be true as she hid in the forest brush that surrounded her 'home' and waited for the human to pass. That was when she caught the unmistakeable scent of Grimm as well, and immediately went into full on protective mode. Even though humans hated her, and she only saw the grey of the world, she would still protect those that needed it. It was this childish naivety that had gotten her in this mess in the first place; she was wanted throughout Vale, and possibly Atlas as well.

That was when she saw a mass of platinum blond and what seemed to be a riding crop run away from three Ursa. If Ruby didn't help this auspiciously clothed woman then she would find the blood of an innocent on her hands; metaphorically, of course. without a second thought, when the woman ran out of breath and fell flat on her face, raising a glyph above her head to stop one of the Ursa's attacks, Ruby jumped in without thinking for her own safety and sliced the beast in two as she expertly spun the scythe around her and pirouetted to the side of an attack from the second Ursa, only to slice its legs in two and turn to the third one, only to see it gone from her vision.

'It couldn't be her... Red cloak, wolf ears...scythe.' the woman on the floor had gotten up, only to see the fugitive who had saved her slice the second beast in two, but not before slicing its legs off. There was something behind the girl though, and she shouted for her to look out behind her.

"Behind you!" she screamed, but it was too late. That is, if it were anyone else. Reaper just turned into a cloud of rose petals and appeared behind the beast. Without a second thought, she raised her hands that grasped the scythe and spun it in front of her, catching the beasts arms first, then head and finally the rest of its body, pulverizing it.

After all was said and done, Ruby turned on her heels and began to walk, before a commanding voice stopped her dead in her tracks. She couldn't hear well, due to the euphoria of killing having not worn off yet, but she knew well to stand at attention and turn to face the woman. She expected some sort of berating or beating; possibly both.

"Don't move!" the woman said, and before Ruby could actually think of moving, she felt a needle pierce her arm. Thankfully, due to her being sedated and dragged off plenty of times, her body adapted to most forms of sedative.

Ruby yanked the needle out of her arm and threw it to the ground, the effects of her body fighting the drug setting to action fast. She would always feel drowsy, but it would wear off in about an hour or so, and all she had to do was avoid the seemingly inevitable fight with this woman.

That was when another one pierced her neck, causing her to black out instantly. Before though, as the woman approached, she croaked out one word; one word that made the woman with platinum blond hair regret sedating the girl instead of asking her to come with her, which she most likely would have.

"Why...?" and then, for Ruby, everything blacked out.

But it had to be done; Ozpin wanted to see why this criminal would help someone who was unknown to her, a complete stranger.

And so, she called in the massive ship to pick her and the girl in red up.

(^^^^^^)

**Ruby P.O.V...**

Waking up has never felt so painful. Usually, I would wake up after being hit or drugged, and this was one of those times. Being a wolf Faunus, you know, is apparently bad, but I find it to be quite cool. I always wondered what a Rabbit Faunus' abilities are or a hawk Faunus, like if they can fly or not; I've never seen one though.

After I got my vision back, the room I was in was small, grey walled and dusty. Usually, this would give me a sense of ease, as most of my 'hideouts' had these qualities, but this was something else... none of them ever had a mirror or a table dead centre in the room, with me sat in a chair.

Giving off a groan, I raised my left hand to wipe the sleep from my eyes, but I found it chained. Now I was panicking. What if I was caught by the police? What if that strange woman from earlier had turned me in? Wait, that strange woman...her scent was in here, and now I grew even more panicked.

(^^^^^^)

**Glynda P.O.V...**

I watched as the girl form earlier, the one who saved my life from those Grimm, woke up. Sure, I could have taken them out easily, but this girl did it without breaking a sweat. She looked around, and started to panic when she found herself chained. It was like she had been chained up before, but from what I hear from the police and other agencies dedicated to capturing her, they all said that they had caught her, and for whatever reason, or how she managed it, she escaped.

It just made me wonder what this girl has gone through, she looks so scared. Maybe I should talk to her, to clam her down? I watched as she tried to desperately claw her way out of the chains, but to no avail, and eventually resided her fighting and gave in to the clasps around her wrists. It was purely pitiful, absolutely saddening as her wolf ears tilted downwards and her head slumped, as if she had been in this situation before, and it must have been bad.

To alleviate the girl's clear sadness and futile attempt at escape, I spoke up.

"You really shouldn't slouch. It's bad for the back."

Instead of the girl's expected anger, or even surprise, she just sunk in on her self and started to whine, as a dog would do if it were in trouble, but this whining was not of that kind; it was of fear.

That was when Ozpin entered, one hand n his cane and the other on his coffee.

(^^^^^^)

**3****rd**** person...**

Ruby just slouched and began to whine as Ozpin entered, and as she noticed his cane, she instantly tried to back away from the man, only to earn her a pain shooting up her wrists; it was apparent that Ruby didn't care about that though; she just wanted to get away from the inevitable beating she would have to endure.

Ozpin seemed to notice this, and immediately stopped walking, facing the girl and waiting for her to stop backing away. Ruby did, but she remained edged on her seat, as if he would try something.

"I'm not here to hurt you, so please calm down." Ozpin said with a calm, collective voice, one that Ruby had heard many times before. She just whimpered and hung her head low, to avert her eyes from the elderly man in front of her. Glynda just watched on in what seemed to be pity, but maybe it was just because of what would probably be coming next.

Noticing the girl was still on edge, he moved to the chair on the opposite side of the table and sat down, resting his cane on the side of the table, away from both his and Ruby's reach, as if to show he was no threat to her.

Ruby didn't even notice that he had laid down his cane, or the fact that he was sat just opposite her.

Ozpin spoke up to destroy the uneasy silence that hung in the air. "So...care to tell me where you learnt this?" as he said this, Glynda brought out a scroll and showed it to the girl; it was a video of her fighting the Grimm earlier.

Ruby didn't say anything.

Ozpin sighed in some sort of knowing way; he knew why she was so untrusting and shy, and maybe he had overseen some of her 'interrogations'. He wanted to stop what they were doing to her, but had no power over the police, and so had to leave them to their rather questionable interrogation techniques.

Glynda spoke up rather harshly, earning a glare from Ozpin and a whimper from Ruby. "Where did you learn this?"

"I-I-I Taught M-My self. Pleasedon'thurtme!" Ruby started to cower away from them, backing up in her chair away from them with genuine fear in her eyes. Glynda looked almost heartbroken at the girl's begging. She must have been through a lot to be like this.

Ozpin just huffed, and at that, Glynda shot him a glare. Glynda walked over to the panicky Ruby and untied her chains, then walked back over to Ozpin.

"Now why would we hurt you?" he knew why; she was a wolf Faunus. It wasn't a secret why she was constantly called a criminal and abused, and it was all because she was the last of the wolf Faunus and being the last of something showed weakness. Weakness in the Faunus community was something they would not allow, under any circumstances; be it even working with the humans to eradicate her or bring her to 'justice', but the crimes she had apparently committed were nothing but speculation of what she could do.

"Be-Because t-That's what h-h-humans do." Ruby had a look of confusion on her face, no longer fear, though it was still evident she was scared of them both.

Ozpin looked as if forgotten in thought for a moment, and snapped out of it was an idea came to him. He had contemplated doing it before, but she either got away too quickly, or he had to leave to do some important headmaster stuff...with which he just dumped on Glynda to do instead.

"What do you think of hunters and huntresses?"

"I-I guess they have the right idea. Fight for what you believe in and save the I-Innocent."

"Have you ever considered becoming one?" Ozpin just sipped at his coffee again as Ruby grew even more cautious and confused as to where this was going.

"U-Umm, yeah...W-Why?" Ruby was very scared of these two, no matter the subject brought at hand, or the type of subject. She had been through these scenarios before, and it still scared her to even think about it.

"Just the way you jumped in to save poor Glynda here from being eaten by three Ursa Majors was rather heroic of you...for a wanted person." 'So that was her name...Glynda'. Ruby thought as she looked between them to see if there was any sign of them lying. There was not.

"Well, what would you say if I brought you to Beacon academy and taught you to be a huntress in training?"

"I just f-Fight to survive, n-Not save others... but I did do that today."

Is that a yes or a no?"Ozpin had a look of urgency in his eyes, as if he actually wanted the most wanted girl in all of Vale and possibly Atlas in his school, which Ruby found crazy.

"I suppose I don't have a choice, do I?" Ruby looked like she was defeated, as if she didn't want to go, though it was rather understandable. She was wanted for crimes she had not committed, and this would create uproar in Beacon. It was far from it that Ruby had no choice, though Ozpin could see why she would think that. He took this as an answer and left, leaving Glynda to sit down and fill out her application form.

"So, where are you from?" Glynda said as she opened up the application app on her scroll and started to fill in the blanks that Ruby gave her.

"Don't r-really know. I was abandoned at birth." Ruby said it without as much as a blink, meaning she had gotten over it long ago.

"I'll just put it as CLASSIFIED. Birthday, or when you were born?"

"Somewhere in July, I don't really know."

"You don't know that either? Have you never celebrated your birthday?" Ruby just shook her head and left Glynda feeling terrible for being the one to go through her history and clearly horrific childhood.

"CLASSIFIED it is. Full name?" she didn't expect Ruby to give her full name, and if she were lucky, she would at least give her something to fill in the form.

"Ruby...I don't have a second name...well, not one that anyone would remember." Ruby looked sad for a moment, before becoming wary of the person in front of her filling in the form.

"Ruby, second name CLASSIFIED. What is your weapon of choice and its name?"

"My sweetheart, Crescent Rose. Where is she by the way?"

"You mean the scythe? It's on the table as we leave. How exactly did you come into claiming of such a weapon?"

"I made her." Ruby said it rather proudly and not once thought of the consequences of admittance to creating such a monstrosity of a weapon. Of course, this caused an eyebrow to be rose form Glynda, but lowered just as fast as it was raised.

"So, what are your skills?"

"Sneaking, silent and stealth attacks, engineering and weapon design, unarmed combat, throwing weapons, guns, sniping, Iado, free running and usual Faunus traits."

"You said engineering. What have you made so far of note?" Glynda gave her a sceptical look, as if in disbelief at the amount of skills she had.

Ruby just pointed to her right arm and gave a small but uneasy and clearly nervous smile.

"O...kay. Do you have any relatives?" Glynda asked as she filled in the form of her skills. Apparently this girl was practically a one woman army against Grimm.

"No."

"I see. What's your semblance?" Ruby paled at this. She reverted back to her shy self in a matter of silent seconds.

"C-Classified, please." She looked like she was about to have some sort of heart attack, and at this Glynda was worried. This girl was treated so badly throughout her life that it only made sense that she wanted to keep her personal life a secret, though why she conceded all of that to her was a mystery.

"I see...CLASSIFIED it is. That is all Miss Ruby. Now come with me and you can retrieve your weapon and head to Beacon."

"B-But...won't people notice me?" Ruby said it rather urgently, tugging at the hood of her cloak and looking frantic.

"I have an idea of how we can sort that out. Now come along, we're going to be late." And at that, Ruby took her first hectic steps to being a powerful huntress...though there will be some challenges and she will have to face pain...

...more than she has ever felt before...


	2. Wounds Of The Past

**A Wanted Rose: Chapter 2**

Beacon was a very big school, that much was obvious; but with Ruby's keen Faunus eyes she could see the individual bricks, the very fine details that humans glazed over, and sighed with content. To her, this school was beautiful, and was enough to calm her as she travelled the school's infirmary, following Glynda, who would occasionally look back to see her and smile. On her travelling with Glynda, she hadn't seen a single Faunus yet, and so began to worry, but soon calmed down as she smelled her favourite flowers blooming; roses. Glynda questioned why she had stopped to sniff the air, but her only answer was a small smile and shake of the head.

Glynda noticed something though; every time Ruby took a step, she would wince and slightly quicken her pace. There must've been something wrong with her; otherwise walking would be fine for her. At this, Glynda took a last moment turn around to the area known as General Infirmary. Ruby barely managed to follow, but when she saw the sign of where they were going, she stopped dead in her tracks, and then began to back away from it.

Glynda turned on her heel when she heard the whimpering, but was met with an utterly scared look in Ruby's eyes; she followed the area of where her eyes were looking and saw the sign. _'She must be scared of hospitals as well. What happened to you Ruby?' _Glynda thought as she watched Ruby eye the sign in terror.

"Ruby, you wait here. I'll go get what I need and be back here in a moment." Ruby nodded and stayed rooted to her position.

Not a moment later, Glynda came out with arms full of disinfectants, bandages, scissors, burn cream and other medical mysteries to Ruby; the last time she was in a hospital was to get treated, but once they realized who she was, they literally threw her out of the front door, leaving her with various uncured and possibly infected wounds. It hurt her to walk, and the pressure her weapon put on her back helped slightly, but not enough to dispel the pain altogether.

"W-What's all Th-That for?" Ruby eyed her carefully, waiting for her to make some sudden moves or something that would give her cause to fear humans further. Ruby may have seen the world in grey, but she still feared the grey that she saw, not hated it like so many others.

Glynda set the medical equipment down and looked Ruby in the eye for a second before speaking. "I've noticed that when you walk you wince, as if it hurts you. Does it?" Glynda already knew the answer, but didn't know the extent as to why. So she came prepared.

"Y-Yeah... But...I've dealt with it." Ruby tied to avoid Glynda's look, before changing the subject on what the things she had brought in were. She honestly had no idea what any of the things were, and so asked. "What are those?" she asked, pointing to the bandages.

"They're bandages."

"What are they for?" Ruby let her shyness disappear and allowed her curious side to take over. This question brought a frown of confusion to Glynda.

"They are used to dress wounds, you know that...don't you?" Ruby just shook her head and Glynda let out a sigh. She knew that the girl had it rough, but never knew this. Needless to say, she wasn't prepared for what would come next.

"Ruby; lift up your corset so I can see why it hurts to walk." Ruby considered going against Glynda in an act of embarrassment, but thought better of it since the last time she went against what someone wanted, she was beaten and left at that previously mentioned hospital.

For the first time in nearly thirty years of teaching and seeing various wounds, most grizzly, Glynda felt like throwing up. As Ruby lifted up her corset, a red bra covering her top half, were scars of all sizes, burns, cuts- some old, some new- and even some that resembled areas where a car battery had been used. The worse of it was on her back, however, as that had much more serious and possibly fatal injuries dotting it; cigarette marks, slashes from what seemed to be a whip, massive unhealed scratches and scars that refused to become scars. On her left arm- which became exposed when Ruby took off her corset- were multiple unhealed bruises, cuts, scabs that won't change from that and even more cigarette burns. The only reason Glynda didn't throw up was because the marks and burns were at least spaced out, so she wasn't covered in them, but they would be noticeable.

All she could say was "What happened to you?" Ruby just looked away shyly as an answer, clearly not wanting to approach the subject of the matter. It must've been a painful childhood and clearly she had been tortured for some unknown reason. These marks would fade, but the scars would always be there. What those scars were actually from, as it seemed, were Grimm; more specifically, a rare type of Grimm, as the scars were slightly rounded. Glynda took careful note to ask her what she fought to gain these scars, but though better of it since it was clearly a painful subject to approach.

Glynda immediately wrapped bandages starting from Ruby's left wrist and ending at her shoulder. Then, she set to work applying cream to the already healed burns, but doing this would give a way to see if it was infected. Ruby didn't even bat an eyelash at this, which showed another thing she had gotten used to; pain.

She did so on the injury that looked like it was caused by a car battery, and immediately Ruby held in a scream of pain. Glynda heard this and wrapped the bandage around it carefully but firmly, making sure not to cause her pain. She finished wrapping the bandages around her stomach and back, and when she looked upon her crafty work to see the results, Ruby looked as if she was just ordered to go and hug a beowolf, then walk naked into a den of Ursa, and lastly play tag with a King Taijutu. The layers of bandages that Ruby wore weren't enough to restrict her movement in any way, but enough to make her feel comfortable...but also extremely hot at the same time.

"Ruby; does the corset and dress mean a lot to you?" Glynda had an idea, but it would require Ruby's full support for it to work.

"No, b-But the cloak does." The cloak would work for Glynda's plan, as she had no intention for Ruby walk around with just her idea anyway. A cloak could actually compliment the look she had in mind; call it a look she got from reading one of her student's manga comics by accident. Ruby pulled her corset back down and laced it together almost expertly.

"Okay, follow me..." Glynda led her to her private quarters to find the tailor that lived near there. He was a big help in fashioning what Glynda had asked for.

**Ten minutes later...**

Ruby finally emerged from the closet of Glynda's, who was stood patiently waiting. When Ruby walked out, she looked like some sort of ancient warrior; she wore a black leather jacket with sleeves that stopped just at her wrist. On the sleeves were black straps which allowed for fingerless, black gloves to hook on, making it look as if part of the outfit. On Ruby's request, she had it made with red accents that travelled along the sleeves and stopped at her wrists. On her legs was a pair of red and black leather combat pants, made from extremely rare Deathstalker hide, which gave it a natural red glow. Not many people had the pleasure of wearing the protective gear, Glynda being one of them, but if you were to wear it, you would describe it in three words; Impossible to tear.

On her feet were black and red combat boots, but they were fitted with red straps and re-made with nevermore leather. Ruby had to appreciate the gesture, but why a human would do this for her is unfathomable, even to her superiorly smarter brain. She was always able to remember things, anything she picked up from the old books and read from the scrolls from her temple she would remember every fine detail, every small print, and every seemingly unneeded or useless piece of information and absorb it into her mind.

Ruby stood before the mirror provided by a smiling Glynda and stared at her image in awe; she looked like a hero, some sort of ancient warrior of light. Her reaction was priceless to Glynda, and in the first time for nearly five years, she smiled; a true, genuine smile that radiated pride. At last the awe stricken girl turned to Glynda and spoke, breaking the easy silence that dominated the room. What she asked though, was not what she was expecting. She was expecting a question of the price, or the materials used to make it, but not this one.

"Thanks, so much for this...But why do this for me?" Ruby didn't look sad, she actually looked kind of happy. It was the first real thing she had been gifted to her by someone that wasn't doing it to get rid of her. Her voice was still small and shy, but there was a sounding tone of happiness and relief in it.

"I see you like the outfit. I am giving this to you, Ruby, because I see a girl who hasn't been given anything to call her own since she was born, a girl who has never once had a real possession of her own, and so you can consider this a gift from me to you. Now we really should get going, because otherwise you'll be late to the initiation. But first, you should go and rest. It _is_ tomorrow after all..." This brought Glynda to an idea, a questioning but rather valid one, if you will; "Ruby, did you bring anything to sleep in?"

"I sleep with the cloak. It keeps me warm, and I-I am a wolf Faunus, after-after all. I just sleep in anything." Ruby said it meekly, shuffling from one foot to the other with her eyes looking slightly down as if in embarrassment.

Glynda sighed before wordlessly leading the girl to the hall where the other students were getting ready for sleep. Ruby kept her outfit on and raised the hood over her ears as to not draw unwanted human attention to herself.

That was when she heard something that made her heart stop and blood run cold.

"Hey Ren, Pyrrha and Jaune, guess what?"The orange haired one known as Nora shouted overly joyous in her orange and pink outfit. The blonde one, which she could only guess was Jaune, spoke with a sigh, whereas Pyrrha just listened on, nodding for her to continue. The boy in green, which she guesses as well, was Ren, just sighed.

"What is it Nora?" Jaune said, rather exasperated.

"You will never guess whose coming to our school~" Nora sang in a rather high pitched voice, causing Ruby to wince and her ears to flick rather protectively to avoid deafening.

"Well...?" Jaune edged her to continue speaking, and what Nora said next was what made her freeze up.

"A criminal is coming to Beacon!" she shouted it rather loudly, catching the ears of the other students and causing their gazes to fall on her. She continued. "It's true, you know. I wanna meet him..." Ren sighed and Ruby slightly relaxed, before she spoke again and Ren gained an angry look, while all Pyrrha and Jaune could do was collective face palming. "...Then break his legs!"

"Nora, did you actually find out who this person is?"

"Yep! It's the most wanted person in all of vale...and possibly Atlas!" Ruby's heart caught in her mouth, and immediately she started to back away from them, as this conversation brought up painful memories. She had her ribs and an arm broken before, and it hurt; a lot. Of course, Ruby was very protective of her legs because without them her semblance was useless. She started to pick up her backward walking pace to avoid their eyes, which were all focused on Nora's incessant rambling.

She had also lost her arm, which is why she was so protective of the right arm. Instead of a small stump, she added a robotic replacement, something to allow her ot continue fighting with her sweetheart, and with her arm as strong as it was, she could practically grab an oncoming blade without so much as a scratch.

None in the hall saw her leave and sleep outside in the open air, under the countless stars and galaxies smiling down on her; at least they smiled at her, the others inside probably didn't even notice the exit she made, and probably never saw her, but the stars gave her a comfort no human or Faunus could give her. When in her temple, she shot herself up on top of the roof and slept up there to be consoled by the light that the shattered moon granted and lit up her face. One thought trekked through her mind when she slept, and it was of peace and happiness for all races; even her.

...Though of course, there were those out there who would abuse this childish grey outlook on the world, and such a person was that which she had seen before, though he is more of a gentleman to hurt her...

...He did have a soft spot for his daughter, after all...


	3. Insanity

**A/N: okay, now I'm taking a leaf out of the Soul Eater franchise and am going to add some of Crona's abilities and traits to Ruby- such as shyness of people and the insanity they both have. Her blood will be black, but there isn't going to be a Ragnarok or anything there. **

**So high five! Anyone?...really?**

**Fine, just read the story. If you leave a high five in the reviews you get a digital cookie the size of Ruby's head.**

**Short chapter, but there is a reason and you'll see what it is next chapter. Sorry if you don't like the ending, and again, it will be explained next chapter. **

**Oh, and to answer a guest's question...sort of...this is a darker, much more bone chilling version of 'Justice'. **

**A Wanted rose: Chapter 3**

Glynda saw something within Ruby, but she didn't quite know what. Of course, Ruby was as cute as a puppy- no pun intended, since she is a wolf Faunus- but for Glynda, she saw a scared puppy that was abused throughout her life for no reason other than existence. But as she sat there, staring out into the initiation area where Ruby was now, she couldn't help but have rather unsettling thoughts. It seemed Ozpin took note of this, but left it be; he had a feeling what was going on, but needed confirmation, and besides, he was feeling the same way about the girl, having the same thoughts as Glynda and the same protective- if not overbearing- feeling for her.

He stared down at his scroll, monitoring Ruby's and the other student's auras. Ti seemed that everyone else had an aura at least below ninety percent, but Ruby's was at one hundred percent. To make sure he had not made a miscalculation, he called Glynda over to check her scroll, which showed the same thing. That was when a scream shot through the forest and Ozpin checked the aura gauges, only to see Ruby's- of all people's- in the critical zone of red.

Both Ozpin and Glynda searched desperately to find the girl's location, using the hidden cameras they had planted throughout the forest. They both came across the same thing, and both looked on in horror and slight amusement at what they saw.

(^^^^^^)

She didn't like the forest; it was somewhere she hadn't been before and it scared her, chilled her bones to an almost icy level. The world seemed so small around her, so empty but filled with misery and every day she would wake up and not know how to deal with that.

That was the story of her life; not knowing how to deal with things.

All her life she was abused and the only physical contact she even received was that of abuse and torture; hugs, kisses, even handshakes would give her anxiety and almost panic attacks and she wouldn't know how to deal with things like that. All she ever did was be born with a different heritage than any others; to help things, she has a different coloured blood as well; black. Her blood was black, and it caused her to go insane whenever she couldn't deal with too many things at one time. Her eyes would shrink into black orbs, her mouth would expand into a forever unsettling smile, she would find everything and anything that she couldn't understand or hated funny, she would giggle at everything and attack anything that wasn't a friend to her; which was everything.

Fortunately for her, the madness rarely ever came to her; unfortunately though it was extremely hard, near impossible, for her to get out of it. It made sense that she was insane really. She was abused for her entire childhood with a difference in blood and heritage. She never once made anything worth living for, and never once felt the emotions that you should feel when you're her age. She never had a parental bonding due to lack of parents, and so had to face the world's force alone, taking the full on blast of the world's cruel bomb, and everyone around her would get a small aftershock of the detonation, not once caring that she has probably saved their lives more times than she could count.

Right now, though, she was walking through the twisted shapes of the forest, shaking and quivering at each hollow and twisted tree she found. The only thing in the forest that she didn't fear- or the world, to be exact and precise- would be the creatures of Grimm. This would be confusing to others, but to her it was right; she did know how to deal with them. She could slice and chop them into a variety of shapes and sizes, and could never let herself get hurt by one. Humans and other Faunus were different, because she didn't know how to deal with them. They were like her, but at the same time, Faunus hated her for being born and humans were cruel anyway, so finding out there was the last of a species of Faunus riled them up. She couldn't kill a person- while she was sane, anyway- with a clean conscience, but if she ever got bullied too far by one she could snap into her insanity and kill them without a second thought. The insanity was a friend to her, and that's why she hasn't killed herself over it, but with every passing day that she's not insane, the guilt of killing people takes over her and she plummets into despair.

Shadows scared her, so she was desperately- albeit a bit fast at doing so- trying to cling to the light areas of the forest, but if she did that then she wouldn't get to kill any Grimm, and at just the thought of the Grimm she could feel her sanity lose the ground it held form the insanity and black blood.

As she was walking, she heard a small myriad of footsteps, which meant someone was running in her direction, and fast. She focused her wolf ears on the sound, and could hear it was a group of people.

And then she was knocked on her butt by one of them, who fell on top of her.

Red and orange hair flooded her face, leaving her with only silhouettes of the others who were running, and by the amount of silhouettes she saw, there were about seven of them, including the red haired person slouched over her.

She didn't know how to deal with that, and could feel the sanity lose more ground.

The person sat up, stock still as she stared down at the person below her, before shaking their red head and smiling, offering a hand for Ruby to take so she could help her up. Ruby just looked at the hand curiously and stood up without help, brushing off her leather jacket and making sure her cloak was still strapped over her, which it was. Of course it was, it couldn't go anywhere else.

She could finally see the person in front of her, and golden, Amazonian style armour that covered them.

"Hi, I'm Pyrrha, but now isn't the time for introductions, we need to run..."

Ruby tilted her head in a manner of which Pyrrha could only describe as painfully adorable. "Why?" a loud roar came from behind them, and Pyrrha looked as white as a sheet of paper. She bolted past Ruby without saying why and just shouted back to her "That's why!"

Ruby spun on her heel and was face to face with a massive Deathstalker. This was when her sanity was fighting the hardest it's ever fought to keep the insanity form taking over. She smiled, albeit a disturbingly small smile, and raised her robotic arm to block a pincer almost effortlessly. She didn't see the stinger come down on her though, and as it pierced her left shoulder and she gave out a scream of pain, she smiled menacingly.

Pyrrha rushed back to see Ruby, but was met with the scariest thing she had ever seen.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby's sanity was lost to her now, and she felt the overwhelmingly soft feel of insanity take over. She let out a small giggle while she used her robotic right arm to grab the stinger, forcing it out of her, causing more euphoric pain. As she slid her way off of the stinger and hit the ground with an almighty thump, she continued giggling until it became laughter.

Small drops of black blood left her system to the wide world outside, and she suddenly stopped laughing as if she were a movie and was suddenly turned off. She stared at the creature with a massive toothy grin on her and her bangs covered her eyes.

"My blood is black, you know?" Pyrrha couldn't believe what she was seeing; that stab from the deathstalker should have killed her or at least rendered her unconscious, but no; she was laughing her head off with a scary grin and her eyes had turned black. She then burst out laughing as she charged at the Grimm, using her right arm to punch it over and over again, knocking it backwards when it tried to block with its pincers, and her left arm unhooked her scythe.. While she continued laughing, she used her right arm to suddenly grasp onto the pincer and in one, diagonal slash, she had severed the entire limb at the joint. She continued laughing as she sliced the next one off, revelling in the sound of its version of pain and screams.

She then stopped her laughing and spoke almost cryptically, making Pyrrha cower in fear at the person in front of her.

"It's funny, you know?" Ruby grabbed into the pincer with her robotic arm, ignoring the gathering crowd of befuddled and scared hunters who were on their own initiation. "You're yellow, yet you're black. How do you deal with that?" she raised her left arm which held the scythe above her head, and smiled a scarily massive smile. "You hurt me, so I hurt you." She was raising the scythe at its pinnacle of attack, and for a second her grin faltered. She looked down at the deathstalker and smiled widely again, her bangs still covering her face but her hood was off. "My blood is black, you know?" she burst into laughter as the scythe came down, and all that could be heard was her sick, insanity fuelled laughter while the small squelching sound of meat being torn echoed past the myriad of giggles and laughter that accompanied it.

The deathstalker was sliced right down the middle, its pincer rolling away unharmed while the rest of it was split into two. She continued laughing while her black blood trailed down her outfit, dripping and dribbling its way down to the floor, where it stayed.

A small trail of black was left in her wake as she continued laughing, walking towards the stinger and raising her robotic arm again, spinning it inhumanly as a small needle popped through the wrist and glove covering it. She stabbed it into the pincer, stopping with her laughing and stifling giggles instead. The needle sucked up the venom from inside the sack and pulled it back into her wrist, ready to be used later. She used to do this all the time whenever she went insane, collecting blood samples or venom form the creatures of Grimm she killed.

She continued giggling while she stood up and turned to face the rest of the people that had amassed, surrounding the area. The deathstalker was now evaporating into rose petals, and all that was left was a small pile of petals.

That was when a growl was heard form behind the girl, and she turned around, seeing the fur of a beowolf, but it wasn't attacking; it was waiting.

Ozpin and Glynda, meanwhile, shared scared looks while their entire forms shook.

But what interested them though was what the beowolf was doing: it wasn't attacking as it usually does, so what was it waiting for?

An order from its master, of course.


	4. Reminiscent Silver

Regardless of that little stunt that Ruby performed and after she decapitated the beowolf in a most spectacular fashion, Ozpin was watching through his scroll as she ran through the forest, her insanity gone and sprinting through the woods towards the clearing that contained the area where the temple ruins were.

He saw as a white clad figure was a small distance away from her, and she was sprinting straight for them. To him, he just hoped that the white clad girl was- at the very least- nice to the girl. Otherwise, there would be hell to pay; most of it dished out by him and Glynda.

There was something about Ruby- including the loss of sanity she suffered- that sparked a sort of fatherly protectiveness in him. Maybe it was because he never knew his parents? No, that wasn't it. Maybe it was the fact that Glynda felt a sort of familial love for her for her own reasons, and he felt that he felt the same, regardless of the reasons being lost to him?

Again, regardless of whatever is wrong with Ruby, protectiveness meant just that; he would destroy anyone who harms Ruby.

He should know, after all, what it's like lose things, but he figured that Ruby had lost more than he could ever do in such a short life.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby skidded to a halt, but kept her hood up as not to see who it was that she ran into. She avoided eye contact at all costs, hoping that if she didn't see who it was, then she wouldn't have to be on a team. It turns out that all of the other people she had seen before were already paired up, and so she and a select few of other initiates were the only ones left without partners.

The white haired, blue eyed person blinked once before watching in utter shock and anger as the person in red and black leather and a cloak walked right past her, avoiding eye contact at all costs as if she were a plague. Ruby walked with a faster pace; ignoring the cries for attention the white clad girl was giving her. She could tell without seeing who it was or what they looked like that they were given everything they wanted on a silver platter and she took it all without having to do anything to get it. Ruby's expectations of surviving the encounter- as brief as it was- with the white clad girl were exceptionally low once she heard a huff of indignance and barrelling footsteps eager to catch up to her.

Ruby could feel her right shoulder being grabbed and her being spun a complete 180 to where she was going, coming face to feet with the white person.

"Who do you think you are ignoring me!?" the white person huffed and stomped on the ground while Ruby just closed her eyes and awaited the beating or berating- or both- from the prissy girl.

Instead, she just continued ranting. "No, better yet, who do you think I am!?" Ruby started to whine, which went unnoticed by the white-haired person, who continued to shout in her face. Ruby continued to stare at the ground and look at the person's shoes, which she noted were combat boots, only white. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" the person shouted.

Ruby whispered her answer out, but it was loud enough for the person to hear. "I-I-I-I don't w-Want to." She involuntarily flinched, expecting a punch or the likes, but it never came.

"What? Why?" the girl had calmed down after hearing how scared Ruby was, but still continued with her harsh tone. She stared expectantly, awaiting an answer form the red girl in front of her, who had her hood up and was avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

Ruby whispered her answer, continuing to stare at the girl's shoes, noting how clean they were, considering they were in a forest. "It's B-Because you're a person and p-p-people are mean." Ruby turned around and left the shocked girl behind, who closed her now open mouth to trail after the scared little red girl.

(^^^^^^)

Weiss noted the red cloak and one thought came to mind; Reaper. Of course, she didn't care who it was, she only cared what they brought with them. If this girl- as scared as she was- could live up to her legends, she could become a powerful ally. Her father- if he was a bit stupid and ignorant, as well as racist and egotistical- told her one of the most important lessons there ever could be for Weiss Schnee: _"Schnees can get what they want, when they want. It doesn't matter who that person is, or what that thing is, they can have it if they take it. Allies are no different."_

Weiss wanted to have this girl as a teammate, and God willing, she would take her as a teammate whether the girl wanted it to happen or not. Ruby became aware of Weiss following her and spun around, whimpering as she looked down to the girl's feet to not become teammates and whimpered as she spoke. "W-Why are you following me?"

Weiss noted how she always looked down at her feet and smirked slightly; she will get what she wants. "Because I want you to be my teammate, and I don't take kindly to being ignored." To get her point across, she unsheathed her sword and pointed it right at the girl in front of her.

She tried to threaten the girl, and it seemed it worked, as she got a scared yelp and a face full of rose petals a second later. Brushing them out of her face, she smirked and went in the general direction that the petals made a trail to. After walking for about five more minutes, she came across what her threatening did; a shivering little girl hidden behind a tree with only her hood showing where she was.

Her sword out in her hands, Weiss remembered what her father told her after that. _"If they don't give you what you want, use violence. Use whatever means necessary to get what you want." _She figured that if she struck her sword with enough velocity and strength through the sleeve of the girl's jacket, she could pin her to a tree and make her Weiss' partner. A bit drastic, but her father had ingrained it in her to get what she wants with whatever means necessary, and so she was poised to charge.

Crouched down with her rapier, Myrtenaster, at her side, she used her glyphs to launch herself over there, closing the gap between the two in less than a second. Ruby lay with her hands over her head, whimpering and sniffling until she was sent through the air, stuck into a tree with her left hand pinned against it and her right dangling uselessly. Crescent Rose, her scythe, was folded up in its compact form and because it was holstered against her back- which was currently pressed against a tree- it pressed against her wounds and even through the bandages, it was painful.

She released a yelp of pain and desperately clawed at her left arm, trying to release it while turning her head from what she was doing to the approaching white haired girl, still avoiding eye contact.

Weiss arrived at her destination and watched on with a slight bit of guilt and sorrow as Ruby was shaking all over, clutching at her arm and trying to free herself from the position she was in. She was too scared for her insanity to kick in and save her, and so she was left dangling with the tough leather of her jacket keeping her up without tearing.

"Now, I want you to be my teammate, and I'm not going to ask." Weiss said sternly, inwardly scolding herself when she saw Ruby wince at the words and try even more to release herself from the clutches of the white haired girl.

She reasoned with herself that it was for the good of what she wanted, whereas everything else she did was for, as her father said, "The good of the company." It doesn't matter who this girl is or what her reasons for not wanting to team up with Weiss are, even if the explanation she got earlier was a terrible one, all that mattered was what Weiss wanted; or, at least, that's what her father always told her. Now where was her mother in all of this? Well, you see, her mother was the kind one who understood most of the things that Weiss was being taught were not the right things and not how someone should live their life, but soon forgot those thoughts when her husband corrected her by saying that "Schnees are not weak, and everything that is 'normal' as you say, is for weak people."

"P-p-p-p-p-p..." Ruby couldn't get the words out, and swallowed, trying to gain her words back, just enough to ask her to let her go. "P-please...l-let m-m-me g-go..."

Weiss leaned in invading Ruby's personal space and only a metre of two away from her face.

"Be my partner then."

"I-I-I can't!" Ruby said. "I-I-I don't want to!" Weiss leaned back and raised her hand, watching as Ruby flinched and tried to claw at her arm again. She grabbed her sword and swiftly pulled it out, but as soon as she did, she raised it to Ruby's throat as she stood up and tried to run, causing her to freeze up and stare at the rapier to her neck, still not looking Weiss in the eye.

"You are going to be my teammate." Weiss said threateningly, annoyed that she couldn't get what she wanted. To emphasise her point, she placed it so the point was just touching the skin; not too far as not to cause a mark or draw blood, but far enough on the neck to make itself known.

"N-n-no, I-I-I-I- D-don't w-want t-to..." Ruby said, whispering as not to hurt herself talking her usual quiet voice. Tears started falling down her cheeks and she felt uneasiness about this situation, which she then thought that today would be the day she died; trying to get into Beacon, if only for the protection it served.

Weiss raised the other hand and pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing and moving back, allowing Ruby just enough room to run away, tears streaming down her cheeks and rose petals slightly following her, even though she wasn't using her speed.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby ran as far away from the mean white-haired girl as she could, falling over a plethora of twigs and sticks, and landing her on her stomach, a stick piercing her side and black blood dribbling slightly for her scraped knees beneath her un-torn trousers. She picked herself up and curled into a foetal position, crying into her arms.

She continued crying, ignoring the fact that she was on initiation, a forest full of Grimm and teachers were probably watching. She didn't care anymore. Never once had Ruby given up on anything, but right now, she was thinking about giving up on her life.

She curled up next to a log, ignoring the pain that was shooting from where her weapon was digging into her back.

"Why...Why do people h-h-hate me? What d-did I ever do?"

(^^^^^^)

Weiss felt utterly terrible. She would admit that what she did was completely un-needed and totally over the top. She watched as Ruby ran away, hood still on and tears streaming from her eyes, arm up to her face stifling loud sobs and feet working over-time to get away from her.

She contemplated just walking away and leaving the girl to find a partner, but the guilt of leaving her to wallow in unexpected sadness and fear was too much for her and she slowly followed Ruby, losing sight of the admittedly fast girl but nonetheless walking in her general direction. After about another five minutes of walking and no Grimm in sight, she came across a small log, with the tell-tale signs of someone hiding behind it showing. She contemplated calling out to the person, having not known their names yet, but the person she was searching for spoke to no one in particular, sobbing and stuttering as she did so.

"Why...Why do people h-h-hate me? What d-did I ever do?" came the muffled voice of Ruby, who was curled up behind the log and crying softly.

Wait... hate? Weiss didn't hate her, she just wanted her to be her partner is all. What Weiss wanted, she got, but- now she can see- that her mother was correct with one of her sayings. She could remember the conversation they had one night when her mother wanted to tell Weiss a story.

"_Okay, here we go_. _There is a Reaper out there, and they've been tortured all their life. I met them once, you know, this so called 'criminal'. All their life they've been tortured, and the slightest movement from anyone who's not a teacher or even an adult that they know would give her a panic attack, or even a heart attack."_

She remembered that conversation she had with her mother, frowning as she thought on what she said. She was only thirteen, but that still meant that she should have been old enough to come up with something better than that to ask her.

"_Mother, why do they torture them?"_

"_Her, Weiss: Reaper is a girl. They torture her because she was born, because she was the last of something great and they don't want to admit that."_

Weiss slowed her walking to the log, remembering the conversation as if she were taking part of it right now.

"_Mother, you say you met her; when?"_

"_Ah, now you're asking me to test my memory dear Weiss. I believe it was a long time ago, when I was walking through the woods to gather some special berries for your father's medicine. I took three guards with me and we walked past trees and through swamps, over small hills and even through shallow water until we arrived at a clearing. Inside that clearing was a red hooded little girl, about eleven or so, with an arm of metal; the guard next to me recognized her instantly as the criminal wanted in all of Vale and Atlas, and drew his sword."_

"_What happened next?"_

"_Patience, Weiss. He drew his sword, but before he could do anything, he was ripped in two by a beowolf who had quickly dispatched of the other two in front of me. I was left alone and without my weapon, but before it could do anything, its head flew clean off of its shoulders. Reaper was a sight to behold that day; she had a scythe as big as a tree over her shoulder, and I'm not exaggerating either. You know the tree we have in our small garden out front?"_

Ah, yes. Even to this day she could still remember that small, eight foot tree. The way it would show its beautiful blossoms to the world in summer and spring, but winter would wither away. It still looked beautiful even then.

"_...Yes, what about it?"_

"_That is how big the scythe was, my dear; Maybe even bigger. Anyway, after expressing my gratitude and picking my flowers, Reaper stopped me for some reason, saying that these flowers were sacred to her and that they should only be used to help people she was friends with, of which there were none. Do you know what I did?"_

"_...Did you tell her who you were and threaten her like father does?"_

"_No, Weiss. I befriended her. She had never once had a friend in all her life, and through out it she told me that she was beaten, tortured and battered to near death more times than she could count, and all because of what she was. I visited her many times in that forest, you know? Only taking those I needed to go with and those I could trust with me. I would see her nearly weekly, and the only times I couldn't go and see her was when I was ill on your fourteenth birthday."_

"_Mother, what's she like?"_

"_Well, she has this cute little child-like face, one that would make even you, my little ice princess, smile at seeing. She's extremely nervous around people. And rightly so after everything's she's been through."_

"_So why, mother, do people think she's dangerous?"_

"_...She has two different sides to her, Weiss. She has that skittish, weapon crazed orphan and then there's the other side to her. That side is horrifying, but, thankfully, I've never seen it. Reaper told me of it, and considering she doesn't even know what a lie is, I could tell she was telling the truth."_

"_Mother, you said that she's hunted for what she is. What is she and what makes her so...so her.?"_

Weiss stopped walking when she reached the log, for there was another person already there, clad in black and wearing a bow. She swore she could see a look of sadness stretch upon her face, and stood there, lost in memory as she was before, the conversation continuing as if nothing had stopped it in the first place.

"_Weiss, you must understand that there are a great many things out there that no one would like to see. Your father, for example, hates all Faunus because of one group. You, well, I don't know if you like or hate them, but let me tell you this; not all Faunus are evil, and some just want love and affection...Reaper was one of them."_

"_You mean Reaper is a Faunus, mother?"_

"_Yes, Weiss, but a very special type of Faunus. She's the last of her kind, and because of it, she can't even turn to her own people because of it. She gets hunted and assaulted for no other reason than birth. Now, tell me, since you're so smart Weiss; what Faunus species do you know that are extinct?" _

"_Well, there's the snake Faunus, then the owl Faunus, and the lion Faunus. If she is none of them then there are two more species extinct: The lizard Faunus and the wolf Faunus." _

"_Yes, now, tell me; which of those are considered royalty amongst their fellow Faunus? More specifically; the cat Faunus?"_

"_Well, the wolf Faunus is the only one considered royalty and to have a sort of leader/subordinate relationship with the cat Faunus."_

"_Very well done, Weiss; it seems those Faunus Rights and History lessons I got you were worth it."_

"_Thank you mother, but why did you ask?"_

Weiss watched as the black person bent down and ever so softly lifted the red girl into her arms, cradling her as she cried into her shoulder, as a mother would do a child; or as a follower would do for their hurt leader.

_Her mother ignored the question and continued with her story. "Reaper was probably the sweetest and most caring person you could ever meet; it was funny to see her worry over me after the day I missed seeing her. Her eyes would light up with worry and she would practically knock me down to see if I had any injuries. But there was something off with her and I could see it a mile off."_

"_What was that, mother?" Weiss was now listening intently, scurrying over and sitting in her mother's lap, listening to every word about the Reaper that flowed from her mouth. _

"_One day, when I went to see her, she was tired all the time and later, when I questioned her about it, she showed me where she was beaten to a near pulp and some of her bones were broken. That wasn't what was off though; it was the colour of her blood that was strange."_

"_What colour was it, mother?"_

"_It was black, my dear Weiss. It was as black as night. She claimed she had it since birth, and that was another reason she was hated."_

"_Mother, you still didn't tell me what type of Faunus she is."_

Weiss started to back away slowly as the figure with the bow looked into the Reaper's eyes and smiled a little when she saw the Reaper smile back. She watched on as the figure put her hand under the Reaper's hood and moved it back and forth in a rubbing motion. For a second the Reaper froze, but quickly melted into the figure's arms, releasing a small growl of pleasure and warmth. That growl sounded like one a dog would do, or maybe some other canine...

"_Ah, I didn't, did I? Weiss...Reaper is a wolf Faunus, the last of her kind. I know, at first when I learnt it, I was really worried and scared, but after seeing that the girl was simply alone and frightened of the world and its inhabitants, I quickly realized that Reaper being the last of its kind was lonely."_

"_Mother...you didn't tell me what that thing was that was so scary about Reaper."_

"_You've heard of those who are insane or mad, haven't you Weiss?" After Weiss nodded quietly, still trying to get over the shock of a lone wolf Faunus (Pun intended), her mother continued. "Well, that insanity is nothing compared to what Reaper has; you might as well call all of those 'insane' people sane, compared to the condition she has. According to her, it's like your subconscious is dragged to the very pits of your soul and swallowed by a thick paste of madness, and all you can see is what your body is doing. She can control what she does, but the madness influences everything; she'll laugh at anything that is deemed serious and comical. She has a mile wide grin that could scare a creature of Grimm to wet itself and run away; apparently her eyes change colour, but I have yet to see any of this."_

"_Mother, what colour are her eyes, anyway?"_

Weiss took one last glance over her shoulder, now knowing that Reaper has a partner and saw, for the first time, the girl's eyes.

"_Silver."_


	5. Reasons Why

Blake waited for her charge to stop crying, and after she heard a single muffled sniffle, she slowly released the girl from her hug, as not to scare the girl. Reaper was an apparent criminal, never being shown love in her entire life; but there were now two who showed her what it feels like, for however long they would stay around for. This girl was a Faunus, one of her, but there was a scent to her that radiated kindness, not hate; hate was what others radiated round her, but this girl, she radiated love, friendship, kindness and kinship.

But one question began to annoy her to no end. "W-Why...?" she looked up at the raven haired girl, who simply smiled a little, before leaning down to meet her gaze while staying just far enough away to not scare Reaper.

"Because you're a-"

This took Ruby miles back in her painful and torture ridden childhood.

(^^^^^^)

She was being beaten, badly. What was even worse was that people were either watching or plainly ignoring her pain cried shouts for help or her torment-filled screams for reasons and mercy. In the end, after nearly two hours of punches landing in her face or ribs, and kicks hitting off of every part of her body, it stopped. She stared up at one of the men who had grown tired of her ill response to his public beating and merely spat on her, grumbling to himself about getting a drink and finishing her off.

She knew at least half of the bones in her body were decimated and her jaw lay on the verge of smashing in half, but she still stared up with blurry eyes and tears and looked at one of the men, who seemed to see that this has gone way further than he anticipated, but he nonetheless enjoyed the sight. He walked away, shaking his head as he did so and the others soon followed, leaving one to grab the things they had thrown around while the beatings ensued and she looked at him, catching his hate-filled eyes and evil smile of accomplishment.

"W-Why...?" she weakly mumbled out, and the man looked at her before smiling, stretching his arm muscles and testing his legs hadn't been strained from all of the kicking he had taken part in delivering to the innocent girl.

Blood was caked all over her arms, legs, head and it dribbled out of her mouth, even some slivered its way out of her ears- both pairs. It pooled around her, and she could feel herself being dragged from consciousness and, soon, life. She would die if her wounds were not treated soon, but she never cared anymore; she had suffered throughout her life, and dying would be a welcomed respite from it all.

His smile grew even more sinister before he walked over to her, kicking her once more in the jaw, shattering the left side and severely damaging the right.

"Because you're a monster..." that was when, before her vision faded and consciousness slipped away, she saw two fox ears perched atop the man's head.

That was probably the day she began to fear her own kind as well as humans.

That was probably the last way she expected her day to go, yet she somehow knew it would end with this happening.

That was probably the worst day of her seven years of existence.

(^^^^^^)

"-Wolf Faunus and a scared little girl who's never had a friend before, and I don't usually go out of my way, but for some reason, it pains me to be away from you or see you hurt..." Blake finished, but she watched on with interested eyes as she could see Reaper wasn't paying attention and rubbing the left side of her jaw with her left hand.

Reaper- or Ruby, which was not yet known to the raven haired cat-, remembered the pain she went through when she replaced the entire left side of her jaw, along with some teeth, tendons and bones, with metal and robotics. The metallic and robotic jaw functioned the same way her arm did, but with less complicated parts and needed no maintenance.

It was simple, really. Each and every one of her robotic nerves hooked themselves onto her facial nerve; the most used nerve in the body and fed off of the electrical impulses it gave off, powering the jaw. As long as she lived, basically, the machine worked. It was, mostly, the same as her arm, with the small exception of the aforementioned needless use of maintenance and cleaning.

She then noticed the cat Faunus in front of her's curious eyes and noticed that she had been rubbing the jaw in memory. She lowered her arm quickly, averting her gaze to the ground, and mumbled out a weak sorry. After a small, second long silence she flinched, expecting a hit for speaking out of line, but none came.

She looked up and saw- well, heard- the onyx haired girl mumble something, but Ruby having perfected her hearing to the point of super-Faunus, she heard exactly what she mumbled.

"She flinched...just how bad has she had it...?"

Wait, this was odd. Someone actually was worried about how bad her childhood and general existence had been? This was different to her, and she answered anyway, given that she shouldn't have heard it but had no choice but to answer.

She didn't know how to deal with being silent while someone else talked about her, anyway, and she felt it best to at least get to know her protector of sorts.

"My...M-My life was p-p-pretty bad...left a l-lot of scars." Ruby said, copying a joke- if merely out of context- she had heard a sailor say when he was around his other friends one night when she could get past others. This was all before she was condemned as a criminal, mind you.

She didn't use any humorous tone to her voice, or any lingering admonishment of joking, but Blake laughed a soft laugh nonetheless. She didn't know how to deal with people laughing with her for once, not at her.

"So...got some war stories huh? I got a fair share of them myself. Maybe, when we get back to Beacon, we could talk a little more. I don't know why, but something about you...it just makes me open more...and I think I like it."

Reaper slowly nodded, not exactly looking forward to talking about her long and storied childhood, but felt that if she were on a team and Blake was there- even though she didn't know her name was Blake- she may as well get everything out in the open.

(^^^^^^)

Weiss couldn't believe it, and by the shocked expressions on her partner's and other new teammate's face as well, they couldn't either.

This was the last thing she wanted to happen; she had trained, and fought, and battled her way past thousands of Grimm, political scandals and even some suitors who were a little too grabby, and somehow the responsibility of leader has fallen on to some...some scared little, red cloaked child! Even worse, this child had secrets that could destroy the entire school of Beacon- yet she knew not if this was true- and she would not be undermined by a child. Whatever thoughts of regret for what she did to her earlier were replaced with rage.

Ozpin was glowing with a face of pride at the red cloaked girl, who had her mouth agape and eyes wide, but then settled for making sure her hood was covering her head before walking away, leaving a confused and worried Ozpin to watch her leave before turning to congratulate the others.

All team leaders were to have a meeting in the headmaster's office, but Weiss saw Reaper walk in the opposite direction, head hung low and clutching at her right arm. Maybe now was a good time to see what was with the girl that she was so...well...how she was.

But Weiss didn't realize that maybe she was in for more than she anticipated, and maybe some secrets are best left...undiscovered.

(^^^^^^)

**Short chapter, but there's a reason...laziness...**

**...Enough said. **


	6. The Tin Woman And Fried Wires

Ruby knew she was being followed, but her robotic and cybernetic arm had been acting up, and she had to –without an issue or comment- use her left hand more than she thought was necessary...

...Or needed.

...Or possible.

Either way, she speedily walked to the balcony, breathing a sigh of relief when she arrived. The stars were out tonight, and her ears flickered from left to right as she caught the sound of distant laughs and hurrahs from the other team leaders.

She lay her arm down on the balcony of the Academy, and that was when her arm acted up again, the motors giving a terrifyingly slow noise; and that was the issue. The casing around the motors was designed specifically to be soundproof so one of two things could have happened.

The casing got damaged, in which case she would have to scavenge for different supplies around Beacon.

Or, the motors and hypo-auto cleansing compartments were damaged, in which case it should be easy to fix with a simple screwdriver. The motors were designed to spin at least as fast as a minigun barrel's speed, which was incredibly fast, and for it to be going slow was something that could actually stop her robotic arm from picking up her nerve signals, and potentially make her invalid in that arm. Since this arm had been designed to be attuned not only to her nervous system, but also her DNA, she doubted she could salvage anything to create a second arm.

But just as she was about to unroll her sleep to see the issue with it, she caught the sounds of a rather stealthy white-haired heiress.

"Nice night." She said, as she approached the now stiffened Ruby, who just ripped her hand away from her sleeve and stared blankly up at the sky. For whatever reason, the sky granted her some peace, and kept her emotions locked inside her; she was no longer shaking- as she hadn't even noticed she was shaking until it stopped- and her breathing evened out.

"Yeah..." Ruby offhandedly added into - what was- a one-sided conversation.

Weiss came to rest her chin with her hands next to Ruby, who figured she was just out here to stare at the sky. She could feel something, though, a rather small nagging feeling, and she obeyed it; she looked to the side- where Weiss was- and saw, as her fears had amounted, that Weiss was staring at her with intensely soft blue eyes.

"W-Why are you staring at me?"

Weiss straightened her back, removing her hands' grip from the balcony. "...Because...I wanted to apologise."

Ruby looked at her quizzically and tilted her head in a manner that could only be described as a puppy in curiosity mode. "What does apologising mean?"

At this Weiss was furious. She had a remarkably nasty comment formed on her tongue, and it just couldn't roll off; the remembrance of what her mother had said, along with the sincere confusion evident in Reaper's tone and tilting of the head only told her one thing; she had no idea- because she was never given it- what an apology was.

"You...don't even know what an apology is?" Reaper shook her head, confirming her rather unneeded fear- Reaper had never been given an apology. "Well...it's like saying sorry for something, and meaning it. Then, you try to make up with the person..."

Reaper's face darkened considerably and she looked down to her right arm, then to Weiss again, and nodded slowly. The last 'apology' she got was _"sorry for throwing you in the woods to have your arm ripped off by a beowolf and then subsequently putting you through emotional pain at pretending to be your friend when I wasn't."_

Of course, the apology was nothing like that, but it practically summed up what Ruby was feeling in that moment; betrayal, loneliness and anger.

Ruby looked at Weiss, who had an apology with her mouth opening, when Reaper just cut her off. "I...don't want to hear an apology... the last one I got was...bad. But, at least you want to try and make up for it."

Weiss nodded slowly, mimicking Reaper's darkened expression. Just then a voice was heard- well, two.

"Hey, Reaper, there you are." Blake.

"...Yeah! Hey, what're you doing out here with ice princess?" Yang; so insufferable...

"Oh... hey guys. Well...Weiss was...a-apologising for what happened in the E-Emerald F-Forest." Ruby stuttered again, indicating she wasn't exactly pleased to see the blond person, but upon the sight of Blake, she relaxed slightly; somehow, Blake's eyes had a calming tone to them that only Ruby, herself, could see.

"Well...it sounded more like you were trying to say something to her, but we interrupted." Yang's tone of voice had a rather...seductive...tone to it. Rather creepy for Weiss, annoying for Blake and confusing for Reaper, who just tilted her head to the side for a second before she came out of her dazed stupor.

"I...don't want to say it now."

Aw, come on!" Yang whined rather annoyingly, gaining a small groan from Blake and a sheepish shrug of the shoulders from Reaper- or Ruby, unknown to them.

"Well...I for one would like to here what it is you were going to say." Weiss chipped in.

Reaper just shrugged again, contemplating on it, but another half of her thinking against it. Her survival instincts kicked in and she looked around to Blake, who just mouthed the words "_only if you want to". _

"...Okay...but w-what I s-s-say now...can it stay betwe-between us...?"

They all nodded, and Ruby suddenly lost her nervousness, much as a surprise to them. "Well, meet me in our new dorm and I'll show you instead."

Ruby disappeared in a cloud of rose petals, leaving behind three befuddled and curious teammates, before they followed the general direction of the petals as they fell, ignoring many a teacher's shouts and complaints about running in the halls.

(^^^^^^)

Once they arrived at the dorm, panting and clutching at their sides or knees for support, they saw that the door was open and that was where the petals finished their journey. Reaper must be inside, and they all walked in, greeted by a harsh white light and a rather dull looking dorm room; four beds, a wardrobe and a door leading to an in-dorm bathroom. Other than that, there seemed to be nothing noteworthy in the place; save for maybe the bookshelf.

Blake- as she walked in- saw it and decided that was where her numerous volumes of books could go- to save space, of course.

"Damn, this is our dorm?" Yang asked, and the rest of them slowly nodded in agreement before all eyes were shifted to Reaper, who regained her courage and shut the door, before turning around and walking over to one of the beds; she used her left hand and her right hand slightly to turn it over, much to the confusion and mild annoyance of one white haired Weiss; yang just looked at her with amazement- not even she could lift one of these beds with one hand- and Blake just noted this down for later, raising an eye quizzically as Ruby slowly undid her leather jacket's sleeves.

She seemed to be having trouble with her right sleeve, and looked down with a slight blush of embarrassment. "Y-Yang, C-Could y- you help?"

Yang smiled and walked over. She grabbed Reaper's arm slightly and used her other to unhook the sleeve from the gloves, to which Reaper slowly nodded, as if in thanks, and placed her arm- facing her back to her team- on top of the overturned bed's wooden structure, an audible crack resounding through the room. It seems these beds were too weak to handle the weight of Ruby arm.

She waved them over absently with her left arm, and then she lifted her jacket off, showing her bandaged back and front to them. Blake knew that Reaper had it bad, but to have bandages surrounding your entire body? Well, either they were there to exaggerate her wounds, or she had it tougher than she originally thought she did.

They walked over with slowed footsteps upon seeing the bandages, but because they were wound so tight around Reaper, they couldn't see if there was any indication of wounds at all.

Yang was the first to arrive and saw that Reaper had bandages on her left arm as well. It really must have been hard for her. Then her attention was drawn by something shiny on the right side of Ruby's body.

Weiss saw it as well, followed by Blake, and collectively they gasped; two of them in awe, and one in utter shock.

Ruby had her robotic arm on full display for all to see, and therefore, felt extremely nervous, but the soft humming and occasional crackling sound coming from her arm began to annoy and worry her, so she reached up to her right shoulder, and used her left hand to pry the casing open.

As soon as she did, she reached her hand around and found the clasping material she had used to sloppily smelt her arm to her nerves, and with one pain filled pull, ripped her robotic arm form her shoulder, the noise stopping almost instantly. She pulled an emergency screwdriver that she always kept within her pockets out, and began to use it to search around within the robotic arm's casing for the issue. It seemed, after multiple sifting and searches, she ignored the fact that yang was eyeing the robotic piece of machinery with envy and began to weave her screwdriver around the various miniature- makeshift VI terminals and electronics in search of a breach to her arm's casing.

She found none, which confused her greatly. She then switched to checking the various other motors and springs that surrounded her forearm. Again, she found no issue, which began to worry and intensely confuse her. So she turned to the wrist area, which was, indeed, where the sound seemed to be coming from. As she continued routing around in her arm, Weiss was awed at the technical expertise of which Ruby created such a thing, and from what seemed to be spare parts no less.

She found the issue, and it seemed to be rather simple; the injector system, of which the built in syringe that she had used earlier for the Deathstalker venom, was lodged between two of her motors, which caused the entire arm to become unresponsive.

She quickly rectified the issue, removing the syringe and cleaning it properly, before she began to reattach her arm back on to her shoulder, first guiding the right components to her nerves.

Ruby then started attaching the multitude of wires that are to carry the computer equivalent of nerve pulses to the circuit board that will translate what her mind is saying, so as to control her arm, from the bending of her elbow to the tightening of her grip on something. It was all rather complicated to the others that were watching, mouths agape and flapping open and closed repeatedly, like fish out of water but for Reaper, it was all simplicity; it was as if she had just found a new form of a friend. Someone that you never let leave your sight and show the up most care to.

And then she mentally slapped herself; a robotic arm as a friend...how stupidly absurd.

But just as she fitted the arm on and allowed the in-built, Dust fuelled smelter to reattach her arm completely with no seams, she saw the looks of Yang- which was awe- and Blake and Weiss- which were that of surprise and mild shock.

"...What?"

Three words effectively left Yang's awe filled lips, and they all made Ruby flinch as they increased with sound.

"That's. So. Awesome!"

Effectively, this cut off the rest of Reaper's- Or Ruby's- hearing for the rest of the night, and she and the rest of them fell fast asleep, making a silent promise to ask Reaper how this came to be in the first place.

As they all fell asleep, they didn't notice Reaper grumble about how the floor was softer than the beds and fell asleep curled into a ball on the floor, dreaming of how happy her team could make her, even if she did get off on bad terms with Weiss.


	7. Love And Battles

**So, so sorry for not updating any of the stories, including this one – Here, as an apology because I was away at Wales for a week and find that completely justifiable so there really is no need to apologise, have a new chapter.**

**And a cookie (::)**

**Six or so thousand words long, that is. See, I'm a nice guy/girl/mentally unstable fool...**

**...yeah, so I don't own RWBY, but I really wish I did...**

**Oh, and I kind of came to a penultimate decision of making this the second Hoodwitch story out there- well, third, but second done by me. **

**Don't like it don't read, but for those who really don't care, I applaud you, and beg that you continue reading about the sad and battered soul that is Ruby. **

(^^^^^^)

"_I thought about how there are two types of secrets; the kind you want to keep in, and the kind you don't dare to let out."_

_-Ally Carter-_

"_A picture is a secret about a secret; the more it tells you, the less you know." _

_-Diane Arbus-_

(^^^^^^)

Reaper awoke at the early hours of three in the morning, considering she only needs about two to four hours sleep to operate at full functionality. Seeing that her new team was all asleep, and she daren't wake them lest she be beaten, she left the room without a sound, unaware that a pair of bloodshot lilac eyes was watching her.

As she left, she breathed a sigh of relief. All those years of stealth had paid off, but of course she knew of Yang being awake. She also knew that Yang had trouble sleeping for some reason, but left it at the back of her mind that she was lucky she wasn't beaten there and then by her.

Now, these thoughts may be slightly unjustified to anyone else, the fear of being beaten by your own team, but Ruby had been beaten by nearly everyone she met –Professor Goodwitch and Ozpin not any of them. Her fears of being beaten were completely justified to that of a point beyond justification; being a widely feared criminal who fears anything that walks is rather ironic.

She misses her friend, that nice Schnee woman, not the nasty one called Weiss...

She shook those thoughts from her mind, and vowed to gather up enough courage to ask Weiss if her mother was okay and well, and if she could go see her. Well, _if_ she could gather enough courage to look her in the eye, that is. Right now, she was fearful of even looking at the girls' shoes if she talked to them, and she made a vow to herself that she would try and keep her secrets and her private life- along with the scars that came with it- out of their knowledge. The less they knew about her and talked to her, the less chance she had of being hurt again- physically or emotionally.

There weren't much places to go this late at night, save for the combat arena and the teacher's lounge; Glynda had assured her secretly and away from the public that she could go in there and talk to her or professor Ozpin about anything she may need.

She doubted they would be awake this early in the morning and so released another sigh, this one of defeat. She was about to turn around and head back to the dorm, perhaps pretend to be asleep, when she heard a noise come from in front of her. It sounded like nothing if you were a human, because one can't differentiate footsteps from background noise, but she could.

"Who-W-Who's t-t-there?" she whispered, just loud enough for the sneaky person stop moving and sigh, before moving out into the light.

"Hey, Reaper; can't sleep either?" Yang asked as she removed herself from the blanket of shadows that once surrounded her only moments ago.

Reaper didn't know how people would ask her questions and not mean it in a nasty or evil way and so began to shake and panic. "I-I-I D-Don't N-N-N..." she couldn't finish what she was saying because she was shaking that hard. Apparently she had a fear of questions when the person's motives weren't told to her beforehand. She had a lot of nasty experiences with emotions; namely, she didn't understand them. Also namely, people took advantage of that, and showed her that any emotion is a bad thing and she would get beaten for it.

"Whoa. Okay, just calm down, okay?" Yang said, trying to get the panicky Reaper to calm down enough so she could at least get somewhat coherent sentences out. She raised her hands as a sign of trying to calm her down, but it only made things worse, and Reaper began shuffling away from her, inch by inch, shaking like a leaf on a windy day in a hurricane.

She began to chant over and over again in small, breathless sentences "please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me" and all the while edging further away from Yang until she began a full on sprint around the corner to the teacher's lounge, Yang just standing where she was, completely confused and tired, so she shrugged it off and decided to talk to the rest when she was more awake later on about this. Blake had some sort of connection to her, so maybe she could figure out what that little spectacle was about.

As she walked in the opposite direction, Ruby full on slammed through the door that led to the teacher's lounge, smashing it wide open, scaring all people inside as they saw a blur and a bunch of petals before seeing the table on the _opposite_ side of the door begin shaking.

The scared, helpless, lonely Reaper had no friends, and that was something that Glynda seemed to acknowledge. Her only friend was her new 'enemy's' mother, so she couldn't be friends with her anymore. She instantly regretted accepting going to Beacon; her being the most dangerous person n half the planet and the most wanted as well really did put a damper on everything she did and how she was. She couldn't even answer a simple question that her own teammate asked without shaking up a storm and crying, sweating and begging not to be hurt.

Though, she considered, no one knew of the horrors she had been subjected to. Any Faunus or human out there who had been bullied or slightly beaten had nothing compared to what Ruby had been through; whereas they had been beaten, she had been _publicly tortured_. She had nearly every bone in her body shattered, her jaw pulverized and her arm ripped off in the most painful way imaginable and some people had the audacity to make out that they had it worse than her.

To put sharp and bluntly at the same time, she had the scars both mentally and physically, whereas many others only had bruises of cuts. And unlike scars, hers wouldn't fade, they stayed as raw and as painful as they were when she first got them, and many a time she had to clench her teeth when she brushed against something or something touched her scars to stop from screaming out in utter pain.

Professor Port, the burly, pot-bellied, rich moustache wearing man thought a creature of Grimm had done that, while the others in the room, professor Peach and Oobeleck, thought differently. Without warning, he let out a fierce war cry as he brought his blunder axe out of nowhere and smashed the table in two, to reveal a shaking, sweating and begging Reaper. It seems that she was widely known as Reaper, since only Glynda and Ozpin knew of her real name.

"P-P-Ple-lease D-Don't h-hu-hurt me!" Ruby screamed, shuffling her way into the furthest most corner away from the axe-wielding professor Port.

At this time, Glynda came charging through the shattered door and stood frozen at what she saw.

"Peter Port, what do you think you're doing!?" she shouted, and as the old man tried to explain, Ruby vanished in a cloud of petals and arrived clutching to Glynda's leg, sobbing and shaking profusely. Glynda looked down and unlatched Ruby's arms and face from her legs, knelt down and looked her in the eye, noting for the first time that she didn't wear her hood today, which struck her as odd as she would usually try to hide her ears. Right now, though, they were on full display for all to see.

"Are you okay?" she asked as a parent would their hurt child. Ruby just shook her head 'no' and started to cry again. Glynda hoisted her up into her arms as Ruby sobbed into her shoulder and turned to the befuddled, axe wielding professor. "You. Ozpin's office. Now" she said in a low, commanding tone, clearly not a fan of what he had just done.

As she walked away, holding the still sobbing Reaper in her arms, she stroked her back and head, brushing over her ears which seemed to calm her down a bit. After the sobs turned into sniffles, Glynda had arrived at her own room.

It was a small, but not cramped, space. For some reason unknown to her, Ozpin had recently requested two beds be put in here, and now she could see why; he knew something like this would happen, and Glynda would bring Reaper here, and so he brought an extra bed, though she doubted Reaper wanted to sleep alone.

She touched her cheek with her spare hand; why were they blushing and hot? Reaper was, at least, a full eight years younger than her, and, of course, it would be weird; well, unless others saw it as weird; wait, saw what as weird? She had no idea how this train of thought started in the first place. As she lay the sniffling and tired-looking Ruby down on her bed, she sighed at how helpless she looked; the previous thoughts lost to her mind to play over and over in repeat as she tried to figure out what they were. It was caring, that was for sure, but to what level, she had no clue.

She shoved them to the back of her mind when she sat down on the bed and heard a small, pitiful whine, almost as if Ruby wanted her closer. Of course, this was true, because Ruby _did_ want her closer. Glynda was soft and warm, and all things nice wrapped into one thing Ruby had never seen before; kindness. She had seen Glynda when she would walk the halls, how she would give small scowls at everyone but her, and how her features would soften and she would wave or mouth the question 'are you okay?" to which Ruby would either shake or nod. Glynda, to Ruby, was the physical manifestation of kindness; she was what every kind person should embody; not prejudice or racist, uncaring of ethnicity or species, treats everyone equally- except for Ruby- and shows that beyond what she looks like, she really is a kind person.

Glynda hesitantly sat closer to Ruby, who on an unknown instinct dragged Glynda down to her, cuddling her midsection and no longer sniffling. It was then that Glynda's heart beat at eighty miles an hour, and so she felt perplexed as to what these emotions were. They were like being dipped in a freezing cold lake, then entering a boiling sauna. She thought really hard, but was distracted by Ruby's warmth. Hesitantly, and ever so quietly, she rolled Ruby over to her side so she was facing away from her when Ruby went to sleep, and extremely slowly wrapped her arms around the shorter girl's waist, bringing them closer.

Her heart threatened to leap out of her mouth, but she decided to let it be in favour of relishing in the warmth of Ruby's body.

As she began drifting off, she remembered the little note Ozpin had sent to everyone and how school's classes didn't start until the day after today, which meant she could finally grab some peaceful shut eye and sleep in her bed for more than five hours a day. Her usually grumpy attitude was, in part, her sleeping pattern's fault, and in other parts the always infuriating Ozpin.

At least she could sleep in her own bed, with her favourite pupil.

(^^^^^^)

Morning wasn't exactly merciful to her, as the sun saw fit to grace her with a blinding ray of light to the face. Her eyes squinted and for a moment, she forgot where she was, thinking she had fallen asleep in her office again. But Glynda hadn't; she had fallen asleep with a beautiful student in her arms, and the... 'Dream' ...she had last night as she fell asleep with said student had been a little bit saucy. She had no idea why, but at the mere mention of the dream to herself in her mind, Glynda's face lit up.

She hadn't had a dream like _that_ since she was fourteen, discovering what sex was for the first time-though she's still a virgin- and using her mind to experiment with the different kinds of things she could do.

This one, though, was different. Whereas all her previous dreams had been with nameless _men_, and voiceless _men_, she had a dream about a very distinct face- a _female_ face, which she had never dreamt about another female like that before- and distinct voice to match said face; she had a rather enticing dream about her and Ruby, and this only served to make her face ten times hotter. Well, if anyone came in –unlikely- she could blame it on the heat, or the fact that she had her face nuzzled into Ruby's hair and between her wolf ears when she fell asleep...

Speaking of which, where was Ruby? She looked to her left and right, and saw hide nor hair of Reaper, or Ruby as she is known as by Ozpin and Glynda. She then caught the smell of something being cooked, and instantly her brain thought one thing that she never thought it would ever capitalise on ever, and so she marched off to the kitchen with this thought on her mind.

Food. Food means breakfast and breakfast means someone else is here, and since there was no one else in the room last night other than her and Ruby, she had deduced it was the little redheaded Faunus.

She caught the scent of bacon, and immediately began jogging to the kitchen to see a sight she never thought she'd see.

Ruby was there, a small red and black, polka dotted apron wrapped around her midsection with one hand tending to a frying pan with sizzling, fat and greasy bacon while the other tapped a rhythm only she could hear on her thigh. After she was done with the bacon, she dumped it on a plate and it was later revealed she was waiting for some toast to pop out of the toaster, which it did a small, thirty seconds later, and she grabbed them, buttered them and placed them almost reverently on the side of the bacon. She then spread some ketchup all over the bacon and Glynda's mouth began to water.

Not knowing anything to do at that moment, she silently sat down at the table, waiting for Ruby to finish. She had no plausible reason why, but her eyes kept drifting down Ruby's back to her rear, and immediately she averted her gaze, finding sudden interest with the kettle. She had no idea why it was boiling, but it soon became clear when it stopped and Ruby poured some of the water into the cup next to it and stirred, the smell of fresh coffee filling the air.

Coffee. Not only was Ruby making her breakfast, but also coffee. But why? She saw something she never thought she would in Ruby's demeanour as she carried herself this morning. It looked almost cheerful and Glynda had to admit, that was a nice change from the finicky, always panicking Ruby.

Of course, Ruby was aware Glynda was there, but for some reason that she couldn't explain, she wasn't scared; it was almost as if she subconsciously wanted her there. She had her leather jacket covering her robotic arm as she had on yesterday, and her wolf ears twitched in the heat of the frying pan as it cooled down.

"Um...C-Could you look A-Away please?" Glynda looked at her curiously, but saw her stop moving and decided to. Ruby, upon seeing Glynda look away, sighed. She lifted off her glove, exposing her robotic wrist, and twisted it, watching as a small, serrated blade popped out of it. She sliced the toast in two and shifted the serrated blade back in, placing the glove over her hand again.

She turned to see Glynda now playfully looking away, and she didn't know why, but decided to play along. Ruby placed the food and coffee in front of Glynda. "Bon appetite." She said shyly, but with a perfect French accent.

Glynda turned to see practical heaven placed in front of her; a dish of savoury glory, with tasty, salted bacon and crunchy toast, along with piping hot coffee and the mere aroma was enough for her to grab a piece of toast, take a bite and relish in the heavenly taste. That was enough for her to wolf down the bacon next after she finished the toast, and that was when her taste buds exploded, flavour dripping into every pour and cranny of her being. She swallowed and finished the bacon, and looked at a staring Ruby, who had the cutest little smile on her face.

She thought it couldn't get any better; it did. She took one sip of the coffee, and instead of her taste buds exploding again, they simply released nuclear explosions of flavour that poured down her gullet, and set off more nukes within her stomach.

"Ruby..." Glynda said slowly, catching Ruby's attention. Unknown to Glynda, Ruby was staring at _her_, not her eating. "...This is the greatest, most flavoursome breakfast ever. Do me a favour, and never leave." She said, surprising sincerity in her voice.

"Um...R-Really?" of course, Ruby took it seriously, and stared wide eyed and beetroot red at Glynda.

Glynda saw the blush on her face and realised how awkward that sounded, and immediately began trying to take it back, but to no avail. "I mean, you can stay if you want to, that is. There's a second bed..." at the notion of a second bed, separate from Glynda, Ruby was unusually...quiet. "...And I honestly don't mind."

"Well...I-I wouldn't w-want to imp-imp-impose..." Ruby shyly stuttered out. Her now only friend was offering her a place to stay: With her in the room? This was all some sort of fanciful dream, a haven of halcyon reckonings of which she didn't want to end.

Glynda's face heated up again, for some unknown reason. "Nonsense, you'll be fine. And besides, it could be useful if you're stuck on homework or need help with something. That breakfast was well worth it."

"O-Only if it's okay with you..." Ruby said slowly, and Glynda just nodded, watching as light poured into some of Ruby's dull, grey, torture hardened grey eyes, showing the slightest bit of silver. "Th-Thanks..." Ruby stuttered out, and then looked at Glynda.

"U-Um...Miss Goodwitch?"

Glynda looked up. "Please just call me Glynda. If we're sharing a room, you might as well." Her voice was calm, but her heart beat like a hammer being pounded by an angry gorilla.

O-Oh...G-Glynda...Don't we have classes today?" Ruby inquired, catching Glynda's already undivided attention.

"Ruby, didn't you see the message Ozpin sent to you on the scroll? You have no classes today, they start tomorrow."

Ruby just looked down shamefully. "No..." she then looked back up. "Um...Glynda...Can I show you something?"

"Glynda looked at her curiously. "Sure."

"B-But it's a big secret. Only M-My team Kn-Knows..." Ruby said, surprising conviction in her voice.

"Of course, no one outside this room shall know." Glynda said; standing and following a now walking Ruby. Ruby walked over to the desk in Glynda's –and now hers- room and in front of Glynda unzipped her jacket.

Glynda's face heated up and she stuttered out some words, while her brain was trying to fight against the thought that this was good. "W-What are you doing?"

Ruby ignored her and took off her jacket, revealing her bandaged front and back, and a peculiar looking right arm.

"D-Do you remember w-when you asked me what I made?"

Glynda nodded, awe stricken and red faced.

"W-Well...I made this." At this, Ruby pointed to her arm and smiled shyly.

After a minute of Glynda eying the robotic limb, she turned her attention to a shyly smiling Ruby, and smiled back. "You made this?" she asked, awe still evident in her voice.

"Yeah..."

"How did you make something that people have been toying with for centuries trying to figure out how to do?" Glynda inquired again, awe still written over her features.

"I...I-I could show you..." and with simply no explanation given to Glynda, Ruby detached the arm and opened the seal, showing miniature VI consoles and nerve receivers.

"What are all these made with?" she asked, staring into the void of machinery, gears and twisted pieces of metal, all looking like they were dug out of a scrap yard, but at the same time, looking like the most advanced pieces of technology the world has ever seen.

"W-Well...I used scrap A-And some old computer H-Hard drives..." as she said this, she closed the casing, attached the arm and flexed her arm to see it working perfectly fine.

"You, Ruby, are truly a treat to be around." Glynda said, surprising herself when she spoke in a...seductive...voice. Ruby didn't know what to make of this, so she just smiled again and put her jacket back on.

"Thanks..." she said nervously, but some part of her, the less dominant part, was screaming at her to do something other than say that.

Ruby walked over to Glynda, and gently took the glove form her hand. She put the glove back over her robotic arm, hiding it from view, and turned back to Glynda to see their faces not centimetres away.

She and Glynda had no idea why, but they both leaned in, closing the gap, centimetre by centimetre-

-Before the sounds and rumble of an explosion shook them to the ground, their almost-but-not-quite-kiss ruined. Glynda huffed and dragged herself over to a security camera to see Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee engaged in a battle in the arena- an unsupervised battle.

Ruby saw it, and without much thought, charged off to stop the fight, Glynda following soon after.

(^^^^^^)

She arrived at the arena to see Yang and Weiss shouting incoherent things while Blake looked on bored, with a bruise adorning her cheek.

Once she spotted Ruby mindlessly walking into the destructive arena, she stood to stop her, but saw professor Goodwitch rush in after and decided to sit this out. The rest of the first years- along with team JNPR and CRDL- were watching the spectacle, some even placing bets.

Weiss used her rapier at the same time as Yang sprinted at her with her fists raised to charge at lightning speeds. Ruby saw this, and the weakness Yang was at, and not wanting her teammate- no matter how scary- to be impaled, thought of something.

Weiss was a blur of white and blue, and Yang was running right at it, screaming incoherent swears as she did so.

Weiss closed their gap easily. Five feet...two feet...

A sharp clang echoed through the arena, and all watching witnessed it with growing wonderment and amazement.

There stood Reaper, petals blowing behind her and her robotic arm grabbing Yang's fist, stopping her dead. Weiss' rapier was stopped by the eight foot scythe in Reaper's hand, causing her to stumble backwards.

Without thought for food, Reaper punched Yang in the stomach and used the blunt end of the scythe to knock Weiss away, knocking the two far away from her.

"What is going on?" Glynda shouted.

Ruby, since she was a mediator to stop any more fighting, had no time to talk, and so stood there, her scythe in her hands, head bowed and as still as a statue.

"She started it!" Weiss and Yang shouted in unison, which made Glynda sigh.

"So, how are we going to deal with this?" she asked, hoping to diffuse the situation.

When no one spoke, Ruby lifted her head to reveal the scariest, toothiest smile on the face of the planet. Her eyes had shrunk to the size of black orbs, her teeth grew sharp and sinister and her pupils danced from left to right as she spoke.

"They can fight me..." she said, then began outright giggling. It was official, as Blake had seen before- as had Pyrrha and some of the first years already in the room. Ruby had slipped into madness. Glynda had watched her tear apart a Deathstalker with her bare hands, so maybe two on one would be good for both sides.

"...V-Very well..." And so, Glynda instructed the two once fighting teammates to work together to take down Ruby, and it would be going towards their end of year grade. She then turned to an insane Ruby, giggling away in the centre of the room. "Reaper..." she said in a calm, soft voice.

It caught her attention, and she stopped giggling.

"No killing." Ruby then did the unexpected; she pouted. Then, she turned to the now allied Weiss and Yang, and grinned massively, giggling away again, while Pyrrha, for some unknown reason, started to shake.

"Ready?" after she motioned to Yang and Weiss, they both nodded.

"Ready?" She motioned to Reaper, who just turned her small giggle into laughter and hopped on her scythe as she dug it into the ground, using it as a hammock.

"Well...fight."

And like that, Ruby hopped off her scythe and bent over, laughing maniacally as Weiss was the first to charge, under a secret agreement with yang that Weiss kept Reaper distracted while she snuck around and attacked from behind.

The plan was foolproof...but they were the fools.

Weiss, quick as a flash, used her rapier to propel herself at superhuman speeds at Reaper, who was now yawning and staring at the white blur as it approached.

While Reaper was watching Weiss charge at her, Yang was already behind her, raising her fist, ready to knock out Reaper.

Weiss connected with reaper's robotic hand, and Reaper bent the end of the rapier, making Weiss scream in surprise.

"Aw, it's bent..." she suddenly burst into laughter again as she seamlessly switched Crescent Rose to its gun mode and used her left hand to aim it directly behind her, right at a sneaking Yang. Before she could respond or dodge, the bullet hit her with the force of a train and sent her flying into the far wall of the arena.

Weiss watched as Reaper yanked the rapier from her grasp and punched her in the face with her robotic arm, breaking her nose and flooring her, knocking her out cold. She bent over laughing again until the room grew hotter, and she turned her attention to Yang, who was rising with red in her eyes and flames licking her strands of hair. She watched as a tiny golden strand of her hair fell form her head and she erupted in flames, emitting even more laughter from Reaper, who just smiled as she bent over, laughing at the floor.

Yang- all logical thinking gone- charged at Reaper with now white hot flames coming from her. She charged so fast that it was as fast as the one she used on Junior, back in the club. She raised her hand, just a metre away form Reaper and-

-Reaper's robotic fist connected with Yang's flaming gauntlet, causing a small shockwave of heat and light to flow around the room. Ruby was laughing maniacally while Yang was utterly shocked. She knew Reaper's hand was strong, considering it was robotic, but not _that_ strong; nothing was that strong to stop a punch like that without anything happening.

Using Yang's shock, Reaper placed her scythe on her back and delivered lightning fast jabs at Yang's ribcage with her left hand, still holding Yang's flaming gauntlet with her robotic hand. Yang counted at least ten jabs that hit her ribs and stomach in the space of two seconds. Thinking fast, Yang used all her rage and anger and channelled her semblance into her other, free fist.

It hit off of Reaper's jaw, and something like that should have knocked her off her feet. Reaper just giggled again and turned her head back to Yang, who saw the mechanical jaw through scraped skin. All anger completely drained, she went limp as Reaper delivered three more jabs and then aimed one at her face.

Yang, never one to give up so easily, ducked, ripping her hand from Reaper's robotic one and back flipping away.

Now staring at each other through glazed eyes- Reaper's glazed over with madness and Yang's with anger- they both activated their semblances.

Yang's eyes went back to red and instead of orange or red flames; white flames erupted from her, supercharging her semblance by smashing her fists together.

To supercharge a semblance is to take it one step further, beyond that which it is meant to do. Hunters and huntresses have been advised not to use this at any means necessary, save as use for a last resort. Goodwitch was actually shocked that Yang, a first year, knew how to do this.

Some people could supercharge their semblances through physical actions, and others could do it through a song or poem.

Yang's was obviously physical, so Glynda couldn't wait tot see if Reaper could do it.

Yang seemed to wait and watch as Reaper suddenly stopped giggling and knelt down on one knee, all madness seemingly gone and replaced with a calm feel to her.

"Red like Roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest..." she began softly singing, her voice that of an otherworldly content, something that wouldn't seem possible to do with someone as shy and damaged as Reaper, but is.

Rose petals began trailing behind Reaper's still form, floating into nothingness.

Yang looked at her strangely before she began sprinting at her.

"White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test..." Ruby continued her voice going high. The temperature in the room seemed to drop to freezing conditions, but still everyone watched with wonder.

Yang kept running.

"Black the beast descends from shadows..." Reaper sung, her voice dipping slightly: The area around her growing dark with shadows that seemed to move from the corners to act as a circle around Ruby.

Yang was almost at Ruby, until the last part of the song stopped her dead with what she saw.

"Yellow beauty burns...gold." Reaper finished, the temperature freezing, the shadows seemingly moving to cover Reaper and now, as Reaper looked up, her eyes and the red tips in her hair had changed to a mixture of Red, White, Black and Yellow.

Reaper slowly raised her left, human hand and a small fireball erupted towards Yang at startling speeds. Yang, her semblance being fire, didn't even feel affected by it.

_Yellow beauty burns... _Glynda thought. So Ruby's new enhanced semblance was going backwards from the words she spoke? This was new. All of these seemed to be new semblances and from what she could see, Ruby could just rehearse the song in her head and the semblances would activate. This was something different.

Ruby then pointed her forefinger and middle finger at Yang, who was just staring dumbly, expecting another fireball but instead got the shock of her life.

The shadows beneath Reaper moved towards her at lightning speeds, trapping her feet to the floor.

Yang looked up in a frenzy of panic now, and saw Reaper then do something she thought impossible; Reaper created a solid, white glyph, not dissimilar to Weiss', and launched it at Yang. Midflight towards Yang, it split into two glyphs and grabbed at both her hands, keeping her from attacking by spreading them out sideways.

_Black and White..._Glynda rehearsed in her head. The last thing to come was _red like roses_.

Ruby then bowed her head again and lowered her outstretched hand. Rose petals seemed to swirl around her, a small gust of them at first before a large, tornado of rose petals swirled around her. She looked up, the golden eyes piercing Yang's helpless red-turning-lilac ones.

Ruby then disappeared in a cloud of petals, and Glynda deduced this was her normal semblance. _It must be speed_ she thought, and straight away understood why she didn't want anyone learning of what her semblance is; speed semblance was an extremely rare one.

The tornado of roses then disappeared. Yang strained her neck to look all around her but could only see nothing. Then, Reaper reappeared in front of her and threw a punch that connected with such force that just as the punch hit her, she was out cold, the force of it knocked her out of her glyph restraints and into the wall next to Weiss; as soon as she hit it, a small crater was left, and she slumped over, her head on the back of Weiss'.

Glynda was ready to cheer along with the other students, that is before the hall went quiet when Reaper dropped to one knee, clutching her chest...

...she then spat black blood onto the floor next to her, which immediately vaporised as soon as it touched the floor. She then collapsed onto both her knees, and just before she could fall, Blake ran over and grabbed her, her head a mere couple of inches away from the floor.

Nurses, doctors and stretchers went out to all three of them, carrying them off to the infirmary. Before they went, though, Glynda asked that they move her to her room, for study and the fact that all she did was overexert herself with all of that.

(^^^^^^)

Ozpin cut the video feed just as Reaper collapsed and picked up the phone, dialling a number immediately. The phone rang once, twice, and then a deep, gruff but soft voice came from the crackle on the other side.

"Qrow, you may want to sit down, I have some news for you that could be quite distressing..."


	8. Flying Qrows

**So, I don't own RWBY, even though I wish I did.**

**Now, onto the results of the poll I placed up last week! I have looked over the results, and the pairing that was voted the most was...**

**...pause for dramatic effect...**

**...More drama...**

**...BLACK ROSE! So, black rose is what the viewers wanted, and so they shall get!**

(^^^^^^)

Yang had woken up many different ways before, but with a splitting headache, a sore hand and a broken wrist? Never, has that ever occurred; in fact God must be laughing at her right now, creating such a strong person to end up like this. The very idea of her being beaten in the arena by another first year was so inconceivable that many had to check the scrolls they used to record the match and watch it again, just to make sure that their eyes weren't tricking them and the famed Yang Xiao Long was taken down, easily, by the newest scariest person in all of Beacon history.

She groaned, and just then realised there were two others in the room with her; one with a black bow, and one with a tiara and a scowl replacing her otherwise emotionless face.

"Well, well...look who decided to wake up." Blake teased, earning a weak, hoarse 'go to hell' from Yang.

"What...the hell happened?" Yang wheezed, earning a sigh from Weiss and a slight smirk from Blake.

"You, Yang Xiao Long, got smashed through several walls of concrete by Reaper, and she supercharged her semblance as well!" Weiss exclaimed, earning a sigh from Yang and yet again another smirk from Blake. "What she did...it should have been impossible. She used shadows, glyphs, flames and some sort of teleportation and all without passing out straight away as well." Weiss added quietly. "She should've died."

Blake brought up her scroll to show a recording of Reaper and Yang fighting, then Reaper using the shadows, glyphs and flames, then her teleportation/speed to knock Yang flying, and that's when Yang, in the hospital bed, winced.

"Wow...is that even supposed to be possible?" Yang groaned, feeling her headache form again.

Weiss brought up a small window in her scroll and showed it to them, showing it to be documentation on semblances. "Technically, it is impossible. The human and Faunus bodies can only sustain one or two semblances. Reaper, as was shown before, had at least five different ones."

Blake nodded and continued from her extensive knowledge. "While it can be possible to hold three, five is still considered too much power for one body to hold. Any more than three would rip the soul apart, and only one other person has had more than three before, and according to the documents from Ozpin and the numerous sources I have talked to, it was excruciatingly painful." Blake winced as she remembered a metaphor from one of her 'sources'. "He said that it was something akin to having your skin peeled off with a butter knife, then your insides deciding to self-destruct."

As Blake said this, Weiss had a face of blankness, and Yang a face of horror. "You mean...so, she's like some sort of freak of nature then?" Weiss nodded with Yang's question.

"Well...I wouldn't say that, exactly...did anyone see her blood when she spat it out?"

"It's black as night..." Weiss rehearsed, remembering what her mother told her, and suddenly it all clicked. This girl was not only some Reaper, it was THE Reaper her mother was talking about. She excused herself immediately and ran outside the room, heading for a quiet spot so she could make a very important call.

"What do you suppose that was about?" Yang inquired, causing Blake to shrug, albeit feel very aware of the heiress now.

(^^^^^^)

"Ozpin, you keep her there, I'm coming down, and I'll be there in an hour, two maximum."

Ozpin sipped his coffee before replying to the scroll. "Of course, Qrow, but you can't tell _her_ she's here."

Ozpin heard something akin to a gasp over his scroll. "But she needs to know. She's her goddamn mother for god's sake!"

Ozpin just sighed, and looked at the scroll, even though Qrow couldn't see, with a somewhat sorry look. "I know, Qrow, and I'm sorry, but if she finds out Ruby's here, she'll destroy the school looking for her."

Qrow grumbled something. "Ozpin, I'm already on my way now, we'll talk about this later." And just like that, the line to his scroll was cut, the small, monotonous _beeeeeep!_ Emanated through the room.

Ozpin sipped from his coffee again before looking over to a small photograph of him and two other women, one with a slightly swelled stomach, the other with a white cloak and black and red tipped hair, both with their hands interlocked.

(^^^^^^)

Two hours after Ozpin's call to Qrow, a certain jittery red-themed Faunus woke.

Ruby awoke with the biggest headache she has ever had. Right now she felt like that time when someone forced her to chug pure alcohol. Thanks to her being a Faunus, she didn't get poisoning, but she did wake up with one of _the_ _worst_ hangovers. Of all time. Ever.

The room around her seemed to spin in all directions, making the elaborate paintings on the wall look like simple twists of paint. Her hands looked like they were glowing, and she closed and opened her eyes again, only to find that they weren't, that it was a simple trick of the mind. She felt like a jackhammer was being let loose in her head, and all the while the walls and floors of her mind were suffering nine-scaled earthquakes. Her eyes spun, her head felt light and heavy at the same time, her body like both lead and air. She felt as if she was on cloud-nine with a chain made of lead attached to her ankles. To say this was the worst day of her life is an overstatement, because she had suffered worse, but this came as an extremely close second.

Off to her far left- or was it her right? Off to one direction, she heard noise, which was later seen to be Glynda, walking silently across the floor, trying to avoid waking Reaper up. She didn't manage, as Reaper's clearly sensitive ears showed, to keep quiet as she walked. Even though her feet were muffled, each footstep resounded through her ears- both sets- like the force of a drum being beat right next to her.

Ruby groaned, causing Glynda to look at her with astonishment, before grabbing a glass of water and walking over to her.

"How are you feeling, Ruby?" Glynda whispered, but even that was like a megaphone next to her head. Ruby whined and held her hands over her wolf ears, forgetting that she had human ears as well. Glynda sighed and grabbed a piece of paper, writing her questions on the piece.

"_Drink the water, it should help with the headache, you could just be dehydrated." _Ruby read it before nodding and, in one gulp, finished the entire glass.

Glynda got up and went over to the medical cupboard in her bathroom that was there for emergencies. She popped open the doors to it and routed around for a minute, finding what she was looking for and closing it again, bringing to a now confused Ruby two flat, circular white pills.

"_Swallow them; they should help with the headache." _Ruby, after reading the note written by Glynda, swallowed the two pills almost wearily, expecting them to be a poison of some kind or some sort of sedative. After a minute of nothing happening, she sighed, got out of the bed, her head spinning, and staggered towards the door to and from the hallway that led to the classrooms outside Glynda's room. The headache would be there for a while, but her dizzyingly terrible sense of direction would go away soon, replaced with her usual acute sense.

Looking back, she saw Glynda just stare at her, as if this was expected or necessary, but that was far from the truth; Glynda just pegged it to one of Ruby's many fears, and so let her leave without so much as a goodbye- mainly because she thought saying something would set her off into a panic attack or something.

Reaper looked left and right in the corridor, smiled to herself slightly under the now raised cloak and made sure her leather jacket was fastened tightly, before walking out, and closing the door behind her to hear a small group of girls' gossiping in the corner. As soon as Reaper began walking, the door closed behind her, head down and eyes averting everything, they stopped talking; Reaper was infamous in just a day of being here as not only a criminal wanted in all of Vale and Atlas, but an insane one; and that had five semblances, as well. Needless to say, every single student either ignored her, or avoided her.

Not that she cared. She had survived this far without people, so she could survive a little longer.

(^^^^^^)

Weiss had found a small, secluded area away from everyone, and punched the number for her father's office.

The machine dialled once, twice, three times before a woman's voice sounded over it. Unless her father had a sexual orientation change, she was sure this heavenly soft voice belonged to her mother. If she had to guess, her father was away on business in Mistral or Vacuo, attending some inter-seas board meeting or looking over the newest stocks of Dust.

"_Rosemary Schnee, co CEO of the Schnee Dust Company-"_ Weiss didn't let her mother continue after that.

"Hello, mother..." Weiss said, with a surprising- even to her- politeness to her voice.

"_...Weiss? Hello dear! How are you at Beacon?" _she sounded genuine, more so than her father would have.

Weiss smiled slightly at the joviality of her mother; one minute she's formal and business-like, then she's cheery and happy. Her mother certainly was a mystery.

"I'm fine mother, but I've called to tell you something you may want to hear..."

"_Oh, such as? Is it gossip?" _Her mother actually sounded genuinely interested at that; Weiss shook her head. She really was a child at heart sometimes.

"Well, a certain wolf Faunus with a certain red cloak and a certain scythe is attending Beacon." Weiss smirked to herself.

Over the phone her mother grew eerily...quiet. On Rosemary's end, this was big news. Reaper, her almost-but-not-quite best friend was at Beacon? With her daughter? She didn't know whether to be proud of Reaper for joining or terrified of something happening to her.

Oh and something happening to her daughter as well, that was...important-ish, as well.

"...Mother?"

"_Oh, Weiss...that's excellent news. How is she doing?"_

"Well...can we talk about that later? I need to tell you something important."

"_Of course..."_

Mother...she supercharged her semblance, but she doesn't only have one..."

There was a pause. _"What do you mean? She has two semblances?" _

Weiss sighed. "Not really...she has _five_."

There was a gasp on the other end of the scroll. _"Five!? That's impossible. Weiss, dear are you sure you didn't hit your head on something?"_

"I knew you'd doubt it, so I've sent you a video, it should be getting there right about..." just as she said that, a small, audible ding that indicates a message or link could be heard over the scroll. "...now."

After a minute or two of Rosemary watching the video on the other end with a separate scroll, Weiss could hear the battle plain as day in her own head. That haunting giggling and laughter that Reaper gave off...it was disturbing to say the least. She turned her head from the secluded spot under a tree and saw a small, red and black VIP limousine pull up, and she had t strain her eyes to see, but the old man that stepped out, with grey speckling his hair and small, red highlights at the tips of his hair was odd to her, to say the least. For some reason, he reminded her of Reaper...

Her mother's voice brought her out of her questioning gaze at the man. _"Weiss...what I just saw shouldn't be possible..."_

Weiss breathed a small breath of relief. At least her mother didn't think she was imagining things. "I know, but she has five semblances, and somehow she hasn't destroyed herself from the inside out."

"_What was with that laughing...?"_

"That, mother, was her insanity. What you just saw is what she has to go through... and she's scared of me."

"_Weiss, what did you do?"_

"...I...Mother...breaking up...can't talk...bye..." just as Weiss' mother began to protest, Weiss switched off the scroll and threw it in her skirt pocket, silently thanking all gods in the heavens, and some demons as well, that her mother was too busy to make the trip over to Beacon. But that man with the red ad black limousine; he looked oddly important, and at the same time the way he got out was as if he had some sort of reunion he needed to get to and was scared of missing it.

Oh, how little she knew how right she was...


	9. A Chance Meeting

**I...*Sniffle*...Don't own RWBY...**

(^^^^^^)

"_Love tears hearts, shatters minds, and breaks lives. But when it breaks hearts, tears minds, and shatters a life, that is when you can say you've truly loved and lived."_

_-Me-_

"_You see, when I was little I used to have Fairy Tale romances in my 'to do' list. It was when my first heartbreak came that I learnt that life is like a Fairy Tale afterwards; only, it's twisted, the kind of Fairy Tale the hero doesn't get the girl in. That was when my eyes opened."_

_-A friend of mine-_

(^^^^^^)

"You know, Ozpin, I've wandered around your school for nearly two hours, and I haven't seen her yet." Qrow's accusatory tone didn't go amiss by Glynda, who shot him a disapproving scowl before softening when Ozpin spoke. Ruby was her main concern; she was like a lost puppy, and she was going to help Ruby find her way back, baby steps at a time.

Ozpin simply allowed his former teammate to vent steam, and sipped on his coffee as he did so- no one knew where Ozpin got his coffee; many a student and teacher had speculated his semblance was materialising coffee cups filled with steaming coffee out of thin air, but that later proved false; Ozpin was a part of the common folk- he had no semblance, and even though he did wish to have so, he did not feel envious for those with the destructive powers, those that could level entire cities and destroy thousands of homes, all because their power go to their once glory filled heads, their once heroic minds shattered by the illusion of their natural power and the wanting to gain more of it.

When Qrow finally vented his frustration, he took a large gulp from his coffee; Ozpin just eyed him curiously.

"Qrow, have I ever told you that you need to savour coffee, and not gulp it down like some sort of cheap alcohol?" Ozpin jokingly inquired, to which Qrow gave a wry smile and a chuckle in return.

"Yes you have, my friend, too many times to count." He gulped down more of his coffee, emptying the cup in one fluid motion. "...Now, onto the business at hand. I would like to discuss our agreement, Ozpin."

"What, pray tell, was this agreement, Qrow?" Glynda impatiently barked, causing Ozpin to almost drop his cup in surprise. For some reason, Glynda had been...edgier, that usual.

"Well...the deal was that he got to teach here, and see his niece, in exchange for him not telling her mother." Ozpin calmly replied, but inside he was hoping Glynda wouldn't explode with rage at the absurdity it possessed.

She merely asked another question. "Who is his niece?"

Ozpin turned to Qrow with inquiring eyes, to which Qrow just shook his head, indicating that _he_ was going to answer the question, not him.

"You see, Glynda, my niece is the very same student you've decided to make your pet."

"My pet...?" Realisation dawned on her with the grace of a charging Ursa. "You mean Ruby!?"

Qrow just nodded. Glynda then frowned. "Do _not_ call her a pet." Glynda said, almost pleadingly but the apprehension of a warning was there.

Qrow just inquired with his eyes, to which Ozpin sighed and took over, leaving Glynda to settle down lest she throw Qrow from the roof of Beacon. "Qrow, Ruby's a Faunus."

"Oh..." was all the man could say. He knew of her, but not of what she was. This next bit was going to get interesting then. "What kind of Faunus?"

Ozpin's eyes widened in surprise; his eyebrows hovering above the rim of his glasses. "You honestly don't know?"

Qrow went on defence. "How was I supposed to? I only just learned of her existence a few weeks ago, and that she was a Faunus just now." Qrow began to glare, but Ozpin placated him with his hands raised as if to calm him; it did the trick, as he quietly stewed.

Ozpin was wondering how to deliver the news; directly or bluntly? Well, there wasn't much of a difference in this situation.

"Qrow...your niece, Ruby, is the last remaining Wolf Faunus."

Just like that, as soon as Ozpin ended his sentence, Qrow shot out of his chair with a look of mixed pain and anger; both directed at himself for unknown reasons.

"She...She's Reaper, isn't she?" Qrow shakily asked, to which Glynda nodded her head and Ozpin sipped his coffee, as if that was a good enough answer for the now panicked man. "I need to see her. Now."

Ozpin, as if in the knowing on his old friend's feelings, nodded, finished his coffee, and grabbed his cane before leaving the office, Glynda and a fast-walking Qrow behind.

Destination: Team RWBY's dorm.

(^^^^^^)

"Look at her, she needs new clothing!"

"And I'm telling you, she's fine with what she has on!"

"SHE'S NOT FINE!"

"YES SHE GODDAMN IS!"

Yang and Weiss had been arguing like this for at least an hour, but Blake had stopped keeping track, tending to a shaking Reaper. Reaper had arrived at her dorm an hour ago, and this, somehow, made her the topic of her clothing, which caused Weiss to argue that she needed new clothes, and Yang to back her up saying that she doesn't and she's fine with what she has.

Blake was currently tending to a cowering Reaper, who was situated on her lap with her head buried in her raven hair. On the way to her dorm, Reaper had met with Glynda and declined the offer she accepted of moving into her dorm, saying she needed to get used to leading a team. Glynda just nodded and walked off to Ozpin's room.

B-B-Bla-Blake...?" Reaper's shaking voice came from her small place within her neck, and Blake was bubbling with rage at the two of them scaring Reaper. She had arrived with the pretence of getting to know her team better, but instead got a shouting match and Blake helping her cope.

Blake was a too reserved person, however, to stop them from arguing, and so, Reaper felt she had to do something.

Blake placed a warm hand over the back of Reaper's neck and pushed her away slightly so she could see Reaper's face.

She gasped.

Reaper's eyes, usually silver, were dancing on the edge of black, shaking this way and that. She saw a small grin rise to Reaper's lips, but she could see the fight Reaper was putting up internally. She saw the grin lower into a frown, only to rise higher into a smile, them to a grimace, and finally the insane toothy smile that she had quickly- maybe too quickly- compared with Reaper to being insane.

Reaper lost the battle to keep her sanity once more, and was now slipped under the blankets of its warm embrace.

Blake helped the insane Reaper to the floor, and Weiss and Yang stopped their shouting match.

Both looked visibly scared, Yang more so for good reasons.

"Now..."Reaper said slowly, as if talking to children. She suddenly tilted her head sideways, so sharply that Yang could hear her neck crack. Reaper suddenly did the same to the other side before gently tilting her head to one side like a curious child; an insane curious child with a grin that the Devil himself would be scared of."...Let's...ugh...calm down..."

Blake noticed the struggle was now external within Ruby, and went to help. She grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around, staring into crazed black orbs.

But the thing that scared her was the length of Reaper's internal and external battle; she was fighting with her sanity _and_ insanity. Her eyes kept flickering from black orbs to silver pupils, her grin faltering and rising again, but the worst thing? Her eyes conveyed both insanity and sorrow, both insane joy and normal fear.

But Ruby lost the battle, and began her signature laughter; it started low, as a chuckle, before it turned into a giggle, then a sniggering fit, then a full blown laugh, her eyes dancing around their sockets and her entire form bending over to laugh at the ground.

"We need to play a game!" Ruby shouted through her laughing fit, still staring at the floor. She then rose, still laughing, her entire body lolling to one side as if she were dead, her limbs swinging limply. Then she swung to another side, still emitting that nightmarish laughter, as Weiss and Yang could only watch on in horror and...Slight confusion. Had their shouting caused this? No matter, they just stared, shock pinning them in place.

Yang hazarded a question to the insane leader of hers, who was, admittedly, cute. "Um...W-What kind of game?"

Reaper stopped her limp swinging of her body and stood stock still, still laughing with that insane smile on her face, her sharp teeth showing as she began walking towards them. She stopped halfway and frowned- mockingly, of course- for a second before erupting into laughter again.

"We can play...a fighting game!"

"Ooohh, like Tekken?" Yang asked. This earned a small jab in the ribs by Weiss.

Blake tried to put on her most soothing voice, and spoke softly to Reaper. "Reaper..." Reaper swung her head to Blake before mockingly saluting her and falling to a fit of giggles again. "Is this game going to be violent?" she asked sweetly, hoping Weiss and Yang got where she was going.

Reaper paused her laughing for a minute, as if to think, before giggling again. "Yep!" her insane laughter filled the room once more.

Blake spoke again, realising that Reaper responded in this state with calmness and sweetness. "Well, don't you think that maybe you should go to sleep? It's been a long day and you look exhausted." She tried, but Reaper just bent at an odd angle, her body bent almost ninety degrees left with her head tilted so she could see Blake upside-down.

"I don't need to sleep!" she began laughing again, titling from left to right, then bending backwards so she could see Weiss and Yang- both clearly shaken by what they were seeing- without turning around. "Do you two have a game we can play? Can we go hunting? Can shoot someone!? Can we stab something!?" She then stared, almost patiently at the two, waiting for an answer.

"W-Well...we could..."Weiss was about to give up already, before she spotted Blake staring at Reaper while she was bent over. She saw Blake's eyes drift to Reaper's chest, then back to the ceiling where they seemed to take some sort of interest in the cracks it contained. "How about we play 'Sleeping Beauty'?"

Reaper looked generally curious, even in her insane state. "What's that?" she then began giggling, though it was restrained this time, almost forced but not quite. It seemed that reasoning also got her to listen. Her smile was still as wide as ever, and it still gave off that feel of insanity, though, and her eyes were still dancing around, focusing on one thing for at least a micro-second.

"Well..." Yang started, but found herself unable to. That crazed smile was something she was sure to see in her deepest, darkest nightmares and the laughter... well, that would be everywhere she went now. She cleared her throat. "Well...it's a Fairy Tale..."

Somehow, the prospect of a Fairy Tale caught Reaper's already divided attention. "Fairy Tales...? What are you, five!?" Reaper burst out in laughter, and Blake giggled to herself at what she said. Reaper, albeit insane, was quite the funny person, it seemed; Blake hasn't even giggled in at least a year, so this was surprisingly refreshing, and it brought up reminiscent times of happiness...before she abandoned Adam. She shook her head to rid the memories approaching her, and turned her attention to the keeled over Ruby, who was once again laughing at the floor.

Weiss huffed, completely forgetting who she was talking to and what state she was in. "Well, I'll have you know, Reaper, I used to be called a lot of Fairy Tale names-"

Reaper laughed again, her eyes spinning in their sockets while she looked at Weiss. "Like Ice Queen!" she exclaimed, and Yang burst in to tears laughing along with her, holding her sides as she did so; Reaper seemed to calm down, even in her insanity-induced state, and her laughter turned into giggles. Her grin was still its usual scary length, her sharpened teeth glinting in the soft reflection of the outdoor sunlight.

Weiss just huffed, but a small smile played on her lips. She had to admit; Reaper was, even though she was insane, a fun person to be around. This revelation only served to make her feel even guiltier of when they first got acquainted. She shook her head, almost violently, and smiled to herself again.

She noticed that Reaper was calming down, and Blake wrapped her arms around her and brought her to Blake's bed, where Reaper promptly fell asleep.

Weiss noticed Blake had Reaper's head on her lap and was idly stroking her hair as she read from a book- no doubt one of her romance books. Contrary to popular belief, Blake's books were simple romance stories with the occasional M rated material, but other than that they were legit books, as she had so argued the first day they met; Ninjas of Love...just the title said it all. It had ninjas, which fell in love, the end. That was it for Weiss. The title, to her, said it all.

She looked at Blake, who had her hand entangled with Reaper's soft red and black hair, and noticed the two wolf ears.

Despite her proper behaviour, Weiss walked over and sat on the opposite end of Reaper, where her feet were and she carefully scooted over closer, almost but not quite beneath Reaper's curled feet.

"Blake..." As Weiss whispered this, she thought she could see Blake's bow twitch. She just put it down to the craziness of today. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Yang plop down on the floor next to the window and trace small lines on the wall; it was amazing what the blond brawler could do to keep herself occupied.

After waiting a minute for Weiss to continue and finding nothing else, Blake sighed, closed her book and ran her hands through Reaper's hair, which got her a satisfied growl.

"Yes Weiss?"

"Well...you like Reaper right?" Weiss herself wasn't sure where she was going with this, and the expected answer to that came.

Blake's cheeks lit up slightly and she smiled as she felt Reaper wriggle to get closer to her unconsciously. "I'm...not sure where you're going with this."

Weiss just sighed awkwardly. "Yeah...I'm not quite sure myself." After a minute of silence, Weiss spoke up again. "So, you like her, right?"

"Yes..." Blake tentatively answered.

"And you're all protective of her right?" behind her she could hear Yang getting up with a sigh.

"...Yes..." This time her answer was more of a question, as if asking where this was going.

Before Weiss could say anything else, Yang angrily spoke, keeping her voice low for Reaper's sake. "She's askin' if you wanna date Reapy McLoony over there."

Blake's face lit up and she mumbled her answer quiet enough so no one could hear and just loud enough so that they could be called words.

Weiss leaned in more. "Sorry, what was that?" she knew the answer though, and although on the surface she was happy, below, deep down in her ice cold heart, she was anything but.

"I said...!" Blake almost shouted, but kept it borderline. For a minute she felt Reaper shift herself as if to wake up, but thankfully to them all she didn't. "...Yes..." she whispered, but this time they both heard.

Yang, surprisingly, just smiled instead of her usual teasing and just patted Blake on the back as she walked over to her. "Well done, you admitted your feelings! So, now what are you gonna do about it?" she glanced at Reaper, then back to Blake. "She isn't exactly the most stable of people, you know..."

Blake seemed to be thinking for a second, but her mind was made up in the forest when they first saw each other. "Well...I'll just tell her I want to be more than friends, and I'll sort of...guide her through the whole relationship thing."

Weiss turned her head sharply to her. "And if she doesn't want to?"

Blake just sagged her shoulders, hands no longer moving in Reaper's hair. "Well...I'll just be a good friend to her then."

Before anyone could get anything out, the door knocked. Yang shot up and plastered on a cheery smile, before skipping over to the door and throwing open the door. Her tone, though, was anything but cheery; it was filled with confusion at the visitor- more of visitors- at their dorm.

"Professor Ozpin?" she was utterly perplexed; why was Ozpin here and who was the person with him?

"Hello, Miss Xiao Long." Glynda answered from behind the two of them.

"Um...not to be rude, but what are you doing here?" she inquired, and Weiss ha dot shake her head at the aggressiveness of the question; if anything, it sounded rude and annoying.

Qrow spoke up from behind the two. "Well...I'm here to see my niece. Is she in there?"

"Uhuh..." Yang was completely brain dead now- Ozpin, her head master, was here with Glynda Goodwitch, and now some guy was claiming to find his niece? To top her day off, Reaper had gone insane due to her and Weiss' fighting? This day was getting...well...odd. She was going to have a bath later, get the knots out of her neck...relax and maybe fall asleep later.

Weiss turned up next to Yang shoved her brain-dead body aside. "Move dunce!" she coughed politely and turned to look at the man. She saw the red flecks at the tips of his head and recognized him almost immediately as the man that turned up earlier in that limo.

"Sorry...now, who is your niece? I'm sure we can direct you to her." It was all said with practised politeness, but there was gentility within her voice.

Qrow smiled politely back at her, his grey eyes shining with genuine relief. "Well, her name is Ruby."

Weiss seemed to search her head for a second, before nothing came up. "I'm sorry sir, but there isn't anyone in this school by that name..." She turned to Ozpin and saw him casually sipping his coffee, as if watching the events of this meeting between Weiss and Qrow unfold. Glynda just had her head in her hands and was shaking it about roughly.

"Oh, right, I guess she hasn't told you her real name." Qrow said with a hint of sympathy in his voice.

"Real name...?" Weiss was completely confused now; maybe she was going brain-dead like Yang?

"Her real name is Ruby Rose, but you know her as Reaper."

(^^^^^^)

**Dun, Dun DUUUUUUUNNNN! It's all kicking up now!**

**Drop a review, Follow and Favourite, and do whatever it is you amazing people do!**


	10. The Second Phase

Neither of them moved. Qrow was too busy trying to look past the seemingly catatonic Weiss, who was mulling everything around in her head. _"Reaper, who was really called Ruby, was his niece, even though she had no family to speak of? Either she knew nothing of him, or he wasn't her uncle, and he was an undercover cop. No, too many variables, not enough evidence. Perhaps he was her step-uncle? That's possible, but I've never heard of a step-uncle...maybe-"_

She was dragged out of her thoughts by a shouting voice that could only be described as annoyed and surprised at the same time. It belonged to the same black haired girl- secretly Faunus which only Reaper, now Ruby, knew of- with Ruby on her knee. Weiss cringed as she heard how high pitched it went, and thought she could hear some sort of glass break.

Ruby, in the surprise, shot up and banged her head off of the bottom of Yang's bunk, therefore leaving her with a nasty, if bearable, headache. Weiss, then from behind her, could hear something akin to whining, as if a dog was kicked or starving.

Ruby, with Blake, was currently rubbing her head while whining and Blake was cuddling her from behind to calm her down and keep her from bursting into tears- she could already see some at the sides of her silver eyes. Blake, meanwhile hugging her and shushing her, was apologising and cursing under breath at the fact that she woke Ruby up so soon. She had barely ten minutes of sleep before waking up to the cries of shock from Blake, but simply rubbed her head and nestled it into Blake's chest- unknowingly causing the raven haired girl to blush- and whined slightly lower pitch, as if in contentment, but not quite.

Weiss just looked behind her and sighed, before looking at Blake with questioning eyes. Blake whispered something out of ear shot to Ruby, which caused her to tense up considerably and start shaking her head, which made Blake sigh and whisper something else. Whatever it was, Ruby seemed to calm down, and after a while of waiting, Weiss saw her red-tipped head bob in agreement with whatever it was. Blake simply waved her hand to show that Ruby was okay with this, and as Weiss turned to look at Yang, she shook her head as she opened the door for the people to walk in- Yang was knocked out cold on the floor, and Qrow spared her unconscious body a glance of sympathy.

"Should we wake her up?" Qrow asked, but Weiss just shook her head, her white ponytail swishing from left to right as she did so. She was wearing her pale blue combat skirt today, and instead of her white bolero jacket, she wore a simple white and red cotton button-up jacket.

Blake gave one last look to Weiss and released Ruby, holding her hands instead and squeezing them, before looking back at the figure in the room. Blake then stood up and noticed immediately that a pile of rose petals were in her hands were Ruby's hands used to be. She looked around, still remaining still as she craned her neck to search for the elusive redhead. She was about to give up before she felt movement behind her, and looked to see Ruby hiding behind her- it really wasn't that well hiding though, because Ruby was nearly Blake's height and she was craning her head over Blake's left shoulder to see the man. Once she saw him look back at her, she squeaked and went right behind Blake, hiding behind her completely. Blake just shook her head and walked towards the man, feeling Ruby shadowing every step with near- silence. Glynda, who was watching this, could see that when Ruby had told her about her skills when arriving here, she wasn't lying; she really was good at stealth, to not make a sound while walking behind someone at close range and with such heavy boots.

Blake stopped next to Qrow, and smiled as she reached out a hand and shook his heavy other one. She noted many similarities to him and Ruby, such as the red tips in the hair, the small chin and the rounded cheeks. But other than that, he didn't have many others. His eyes were a shade of burning yellow, a sharp contrast to Ruby's silver ones, and his hair was a midnight black, whereas Ruby's was auburn, almost brown.

His handshake was heavy, but kind, with a hint of softness to his calloused hands; he was a professor after all, so he must be somewhat professional in fighting, and continuously, if Blake had a guess.

As they released each other's hands, Blake smiled slightly at the man. "Sir, it's nice to meet you."

Qrow smiled. "My name's Qrow, no nee to be formal now. You must be Blake." he bowed his head slightly before looking at Weiss. "Miss Schnee, I suppose?" as Weiss nodded, he smiled and turned to look at Yang, who was now snoring. "And...This is Yang. Charming young...lady..." it seemed Qrow had a difficult time calling her a lady, since she seemed to be snoring like a rhinoceros. He shook off his stupor at the snoring girl, and turned to the black haired, bow-wearing girl and looked slightly past her.

"So..." his tone took on a friendlier, almost childish tone. "Where's Ruby? I don't see her anywhere..." he pretended to be searching for a ship, with his hands flat on his brow as he looked around the room. Ozpin and Glynda seemed to be amused at this, while Weiss just watched the reunion with melancholy, wishing her father were that nice to her- considering this was just an uncle- and Blake looked on with a soft look in her eyes, remembering when her uncle used to come around- before the White Fang- and treated her like a little princess, pretending to bow when she walked past him, and giving off a never-ending, sun-splitting smile that took her little breath away.

Ruby, behind Blake, was watching by peeking her head over Blake's shoulder, and wore a slightly amused smile, her eyes still showing fear, but not as much as originally when she first saw him enter the room.

He then spotted her dramatically as if a searchlight spotter had seen an object in the dark and stopped their continuous search, and smiled a wide, toothy, pristine white grin, which caused Ruby to look at him with a slightly bigger smile of amusement.

She tentatively questioned. "Who are y-you?" it wasn't laced with fear as her usual words were, but she still stuttered.

Qrow simply smiled again and looked into her silver eyes with his fiery yellow.

"Hello, Ruby." Qrow took a bow, and smiled again as he rose; it seemed that this man never lost a smile...until Yang interrupted him with her snoring.

"H-Hello." Ruby said meekly, before edging her way out of Blake's back and clutching onto her arm, as a child would do its' mother.

"I...well... Damnit! I imagined this would go smoother... and easier..." he sighed, ruffling a hand through his red and grey hair as he looked back at Ruby, a serious expression on his face.

Ruby didn't like that expression and clutched tighter to Blake.

He knelt down on one knee, with his hand on each one and smiled sadly. "Ruby, I'm ...I'm you uncle, Qrow."

(^^^^^^)

She had been planning this for a while now, and her plans were finally reaching the end of stage one. She had heard from her informants that her step-brother, Qrow, had entered the vicinity of Beacon, and from what she heard, it had to do with a red clad girl with a scythe and hood.

It sounded too familiar, too painfully familiar...

She sighed, rubbing a hand through her ebony tresses and smile sadly at the thought of the one who she loved; the one who hadn't got to see that little miracle she produced fifteen years ago... and now that same miracle was lost to her. But she saw the extra ears on the child's head, and she knew what the nurses had done...or she thought she did. So she razed the entire hospital to the ground, every single nurse and doctor perishing and every single patient being put to a fiery respite.

Sighing, she looked over to a photograph of the one in white and the one in red holding their hands together, a swell in one woman's stomach and a ring on each hand binding them both. She had scratched out the man on the edges of the photo, rage compelling her to do so at the time, but now she felt only sorrow. Her oldest friend and she had done that without a thought for food. No matter, Beacon was soon to join the fires the world would soon be engulfed in for taking that one small gift she brought into the world.

She heard the door to her small 'throne room' open and saw a familiar bowler hat, white jacket and orange hair walk over to her, swinging his cane melodramatically, as he always did.

He came to a stop in front of her just as she hid the photo, smiling and placing his cane out in front of him.

"Well, no 'hello'?" She absolutely hated this man, but he got the job done, and he was rather amusing... and annoying. His jokes were terrible, but he could be funny when he was sarcastic or melancholy. All in all, he was good enough for her to allow to work for her.

She just stared at him, her fiery orange eyes looking at him blankly. "What's the status on Qrow Rose, Roman?" she asked bored, but on the inside she was jumping for information. Whatever the reason he had for visiting Beacon, it had to involve _her_ in some way, and she would find out.

Roman just sighed. "No hello then..." he cringed as the woman in red sparked her hands with flames in them, and he hurried along with his news. "Well, Qrow arrived, say, two hours ago, but he's still there, and from what I heard, he's visiting that new criminal they got there."

This was news. "Criminal? Do tell."

Roman sighed, and looked at her as she flicked her wrist and the flames vanished. Now sensing he was out of danger, he carried on with his report. "You know that new criminal, the wolf Faunus one, Reaper?" the crimson dressed woman just nodded ever so slightly that Roman would've had to strain his eyes to see the movement. "Well, she's apparently been accepted into Beacon, despite that little witch's crimes." A fireball landed next to his feet, and he immediately scampered backwards, rubbing his singed shoes.

"Do _not_ call her a witch. She's someone we _need_, Roman, and you're going to get her for me." She flashed a wicked smile, but Roman was bristling with irritation.

"And how am I to do that? Everyone there knows my face! I'll be arrested or killed on sight."

She gave a sweet look and smiled wickedly. "Then we do it ourselves. We're moving onto phase two."

Roman looked at her with no longer anger or irritation, but curiosity. "And what, pray tell, is phase two?" he inquire, expectantly tapping his foot.

Behind him, two people moved out from their shadowed covers, and walked past him, speaking.

"It's a need to know thing..." Emerald, the green haired girl with calculating red eyes, started off.

Mercury, the silver haired boy, finished. "...And you definitely are not going to know."

Roman just sighed as the two people took their places at the side of the red dressed woman. He took a drag of the cigar between his lips and puffed out smoke as he talked. "Well, what exactly are you going to do? You can tell me that, at least."

Cinder shook her head and stood from her throne, the two followers following her out the room. She stopped just short of the door and smiled over her shoulder.

"Observation and recon, Roman, observation and recon."


	11. The Valkyrie's Insanity And Revelations

**I don't own RWBY, yada, yada...**

(^^^^^^)

It started out, as many things do, as miniscule, tiny, and so pointlessly small that it could have been mistaken for anything other than what it was. It could have been a sigh, or a cough, or a sneeze, or something that no one would have noticed. It may have been a figment of imagination, or the signs of their own self-delusion. Blake wasn't even sure if she heard it, and neither were the other occupants- save for Qrow- quite sure. Glynda just popped her ears to make sure it wasn't her figment-creating imagination. Ozpin sighed, though, clearly knowing that this quite predictable reaction would be incurred. Qrow stared plainly at the red-garbed young girl...

...and saw the frightening ear-to-ear grin displayed on her face. Blake, who had been Ruby's main source of courage to face her uncle, was feeling light-headed from the iron grip that Ruby had incurred upon her, feeling her arm go numb from the iron fingers laced around it.

She freed herself and immediately brought herself to kneel in front of Ruby, grabbing her hands and drawing a circle within her palms in straining efforts to keep the young girl under control; but it seemed her efforts were fruitless, pointless, beyond anything they could imagine to do. Their imagination had no hand in the fact that they _did_ hear her start to laugh. They heard it, as split-second as it may have been. It was the beginnings of a tirade of laughter...but Ruby's appearance within her now madden state had changed drastically from about fifteen minutes ago to when she last went maniacal.

Her eyes had blackened so much that one would think that same blackness extended to her soul, to her very being. It hadn't; the blackness was what many saw, but what she saw when she looked in the mirror of this maddened state was, in fact, light. She saw a way out _within_ this madness, a sanctum, sanctuary of painlessness and hope. They had shrunk to at least their half-size, and were almost shaking to the point that Blake- one of the many onlookers of this spectacularly scary sight- feared they may shake themselves free of her eye sockets.

The smile was the widest they had seen on her insanity-induced facial features, and twice as scary; all of her dagger-sharp teeth showed, glinting with malicious intent, the mechanical side of her jaw open for all to see, the display a somewhat technical show of mechanical expertise and adeptness and a scary show of glinting organic-synthetic partnership with evil intent- possibly that to rip out a throat.

But the scariest thing they all saw? The scariest thing was the look of sadness within the grin, as if she were in disbelief within her own insanity; as if trying to find answers within the many questions her own insanity brought her. But then the sadness vanished by madness; it was as if her insanity was just that; the stuff of disbelief, mixed in with happiness, elatedness, sadness, and, most importantly, madness. All of it was mixed within this little girl, creating the scariest, most haunting memory they would have of her.

Tears seemed to leak from the widened, shaking eyes, as teeth displayed themselves within a full maniacal grin.

Then came the laughing: It was as if someone had pumped a room full of mentally ill patients with Nitrous Oxide, and recorded their simultaneous laughter. It was devilish, couldn't be compared to its' scariness, and all in the room were sure to hear that laughter the following night within their many differing dreams and nightmares. Qrow, along with Glynda and Blake, were all wide-eyed and shaking, while Ozpin and Weiss just shared looked of what seemed to be apparent uncertainty, but filled with fear within their eyes and dread within their very beings. It then escalated to the kind of laughter that shouldn't be possible, yet it was; it ingrained its sound within all present's minds, and embed itself deep within the foundations of the walls, the floorboards beneath their feet, creating a haunting outlook within that laugh.

Blake didn't know what to do, and as a result, curled up into a ball off in the far corner of the room until the ruckus laughter either died down to maniacal giggling or her madness dissipated for the time being.

Yang had woken up at this point, only to hear the laughter and shoot to her feet, aiming daggers that were embedded within her eyes towards the newcomer to their dorm, Qrow. He could feel the heat from the glare, but thought nothing of it as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening.

He looked over to Ozpin, and heeded the man's signal with hands to move over to him; well, he tried to, if a small, red garbed and laughing body didn't smash into him with the force of a raging Ursa. He flew across the room, and smashed head first through the wooden door that was their dorm room door. The force of that shoulder smashing sent him further than he thought possible, and before he knew it, he was planted in the wall of team JNPR's dorm, their door also smashed.

This team was given a small mission, hence their lack of appearance within the past few hours and day. They had seen a red figure on their scrolls fight Yang Xiao Long, to which Nora was almost mesmerised by their laughter, and began her own chuckling while watching it. She hoped to a have a fight with this person.

So you can imagine her utter glee when said person's insanity-fuelled laughter filled her ears and a second later some old man flew and landed into the wall of their dorm. Pyrrha just looked at Ren, while Jaune was stuck in place out of fear and had to be moved to the other side of the dorm by the rest of them, away from a giggling Nora and an old man who was peeling himself out of the wall.

Before any could even bother thinking about saying something, a fireball was hurled through the air from a source they couldn't see and smashed right into the old man, knocking him through that wall as well and into the outside world, to which they could see was rather bright for seven in the afternoon.

Nora watched with glee as a red garbed girl with her hood lowered to reveal a scary smile and tears leaking from her shaking eyes walked into their dorm, laughing as loud as earlier. Without even such as a sidelong glance, she jumped out onto the soft grass of the outside of Beacon and landed perfectly, still laughing.

(^^^^^^)

Qrow's survival instincts kicked in the moment he heard the laughter and felt the ground shake from the force of her landing on the floor, and he rolled into a combat stance, his black and silver scythe already unfolded and ready for action.

It had a striking resemblance to Crescent Rose, except the pieces were of a higher grade; made of Atlesian metals and Menagerie ores compared to Ruby's second hand motors and used parts. It was slightly bigger that Crescent Rose, but lacked the sniper rifle hybridisation, making his thinner and easier- he assumed- to move around. Though, to be fair on his part, he hasn't seen this scythe of hers yet. He knew it was a scythe from Ozpin's notes, but knew not her semblance, what the scythe looked like, or her madness.

As soon as the still laughing Ruby landed she spotted the scythe and, if it was possible, her smile widened.

"You have a scythe too!? Oh this will be so. Much. Fun!" as she began laughing again, Qrow readied himself into a battle stance, expecting her to bring out her scythe as well. Instead, she simply took out a box-shaped red object from her back and _fired_ a bullet at him.

From his stumbled blocking of the bullet she could tell it was unexpected that the red box that she held could fire anything at him. So, she laughed her head off while blasting more bullets at him, using the bolt action feature of her red box to keep the fire almost continuous.

Every time Qrow blocked a bullet with the flat end of his thin scythe he could feel the power behind each shot, could almost taste the gunpowder as it rained down from his blocking. He was extremely lucky that Ruby seemed to run out of bullets and reload then so he could get a breath to catch. But immediately he felt a bullet graze his left cheek, and raised his guard again, blocking- luckily- a bullet that was aimed directly for his head.

He had an idea, though, to turn this battle around. "What's the matter, are you scared to fight me?" he resorted to taunting, and Ozpin could almost wince fomr the heavy laughter that erupted from Ruby as she simply walked over to Qrow, tears streaming from her insanity-fuelled state, and that grizzly smile still on her face.

She tilted her head sideways to the left, and her smile turned into a pout. "You're not red." she burst into laughter again, and before he could even blink, he felt a heavy fist impact with his jaw, sending him flying and bleeding. He hit the ground with a busted nose, and before he collapsed into unconsciousness, he heard her giggle.

"Yay, now you're red!"

And he blacked out just as a blob of pink appeared behind Ruby.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby spun on her heels, her smile still on her face as she saw Nora, her hammer in hand, and a smile equally sized on her white face.

Ruby tilted her head. She couldn't tell if this was a friend who was here to help her get rid of the liars in the school, or if it was just another person who wanted to fight her. Oh, she could do with a good fight! But, maybe she needed someone to help her? Yes! She needed someone who hated liars like she did! But what if this person didn't hate liars? What should she do then? Oh, maybe she should just ask.

"Ooohh, you're pink! Are you a good pink or a bad pink?" everyone watching the exchange of words was completely baffled to what they meant, but just ignored it and watched to se the outcome. Ren had been trying to hide Nora's slight insanity for a while, her obsessive need to 'boop' people and make sloth noises kept her in check, but he honestly didn't see anything wrong with letting Nora, an insane person, interact with Reaper, a completely different breed of insanity. Who knows? Maybe they'd snap each other out of their insanity and become friends.

Nora tilted her head in the opposite direction to that which Ruby did, and if it was possible, matched Ruby's cheek-splitting grin, her eyes dancing around with madness like Ruby's. Nora's madness was nowhere near as bad as Ruby's, but it was still...well...madness.

Nora lifted her head and jumped enthusiastically. "I'm a good pink! Are you fighting the lies too?"

Ruby jumped up and down as well, her smile still present as she giggled. "Yes!" She sprinted over and grappled a giggling Nora in a hug, swinging her around before putting her down and giggling in unison with Nora.

Letting her go, she turned her head towards the rest of the school, still smiling as she did so. She titled her head, and Nora did the same. "It needs something..."

Nora continued what Ruby was saying. "It needs something...red."

Ruby looked at Nora, and Nora, Ruby before they both giggled and shouted out. "Let's paint the walls red!" They both grabbed their weapons, and smiled maniacally at the school, laughing as they did so.

Just as Ruby unsheathed her scythe, Qrow woke up and groaned, grabbing their attention.

They both spun around, smiling their sinister smiles with tears coming from Ruby's eyes again and both of their eyes shaking violently.

"Can I!?" Nora asked eagerly to fight this man, but Ruby just tilted her head and waited for him to take out his weapon. As he did, Ruby stared at the scythe, as if calculating something.

Ruby tilted her head to a near perfect ninety degrees and laughed again. "It's funny you know?"

Nora began laughing, as if it was a joke between them both while Qrow just groaned. "...What's...so funny?"

Nora burst out laughing again, holding her sides with her weapon dropped on the floor. Silently, Professor Goodwitch and Port dropped down from the ruined wall, weapons in hand and sneaking up to them.

Qrow saw this and shook his head, telling them to stay there as Ruby began laughing and talking. "You lied to me! I don't like people lying!"

Qrow raised his hands in defence. "Ruby please! I'm not lying! I _am_ your uncle."

Ruby suddenly roared, her voice dropped into an animalistic growl, her eyes red-raw from the tears falling as she smiled. Her smile was still there, but her voice was different. It dropped to an almost masculine level, sounding brassy and croaky.

"If you're my uncle, where were you when I was being tortured!?" after no answer, Ruby continued. "WHERE WERE YOU!?"

Qrow was shocked; he went silent, as did the rest of the school. Nora had snapped out of her insanity at the voice dropping of Ruby, and stared wide-eyed at what she had heard, as did everyone else. Glynda was frozen in place as Port loaded an oversized tranquiliser dart into his blunder-axe.

Nora just collapsed of shock.

Just as Port took aim and shot, the dart flew out at unimaginably fast speeds, rocketing towards Ruby with the speed of sound.

But she was faster. Not taking her eyes off of Qrow, she moved to the left with her semblance had grabbed the dart as it whizzed past her head, clutching it in her hands as Port looked on in astonishment; well, everyone assumed it was astonishment, but they couldn't tell due to his thick eyebrows and bushy moustache.

In one swift motion, she jabbed the tranquiliser into her neck and, if it was even possible, she smiled wider. Her teeth held some sort of secret promise with Qrow's neck, threatening to tear it out. Port waited for the effects of the tranquilising dart to take effect, but it didn't.

"What are you talking about?" Qrow asked her, to which earned him a laugh, only this time...it was genuine, not insanity fuelled. Blake, who was part of the watching group of people, heard this and knew instantly that she was snapping out of it with every word Qrow said. She moved through the group, but was suffering with resistance. Thinking quickly, she used Gambol Shroud's ribbon to launch herself over the mass of students, making her way to the front of the crowd.

Ruby ripped off her jacket, showing everyone her bandage-wrapped body. She smiled sadly, this time no insanity there, which made them all think she'd gone sane again...until her smile went back to its sinister toothy, ear-to-ear grin.

"You see what people have done to me? If you were my uncle you'd have stopped them!" she laughed again, but tears flowed from her shaking eyes.

Qrow looked genuinely shocked. "I...I had no idea! How could I have stopped them if I didn't know!?"

Ruby then muttered something, and suddenly, a circle of shadows swam around her, waiting for the command to attack.

Her insanity was gone, and she spoke clearly now, with no stutter of giggling. "You want to see what they did to me?" she ripped off the bandage-sleeve covering her robotic arm, and Qrow almost fell to the floor in disbelief. "They tore off my arm! Do you know what that was like?" she then tapped the side of her jaw, the left side, with her organic hand. "They shattered my jaw when I was seven! SEVEN! Do you know the pain I was in, still _am_ in?" she muttered something again and a circle of glyphs appeared, floating around her. All were white, all with the symbol of a rose in the centre of it.

Qrow was mystified; she had two semblances? This was- wait, what is she doing?

Blake reached the front of the group, and was about to jump down, before freezing up at the sight and words that Ruby spoke.

"Do you know how much times I wished I was dead? Do you know I turned to the White Fang for help, only to be attacked and left for dead?" again, she muttered something, and fire erupted into her left hand.

Her eyes had changed to the colour of orange, a burning flaming orange that Qrow had only seen in one other person; Cinder. The tips of her hair glowed a mixture of red, black, white and yellow, and the flames in her hand grew to a dark orange, as opposed to their usual yellow.

She smiled sinisterly. "If you were my uncle, you'd know that I've been through too much to believe some random stranger!" Ruby sneered, and just like that, she hurled a ball of orange fire at him, the glyphs all turning orange, spinning around Ruby in a circular motion. The shadows at her feet suddenly turned into black arrows, all pointing at Qrow should he do anything else.

The fire edged closer to Qrow, closer to his stubble-covered face. He could practically feel the flames licking at his stubbled chin...

...but as he opened his eyes to face the flames head on, to brave their hateful flames, he could see as clear as day that they did not hit.

Instead, there stood a person he hoped to never see again since Summer's death.

The one person he hoped Ruby would never have to meet in this accursed world either.

"...Neo?"


	12. Remembering The Neapolitan

**Sorry for taking so long, blame college.**

(^^^^^^)

_It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to become insane."_

_-Philip K. Dick, VALIS-_

(^^^^^^)

Ruby's walked this line, she's been here before and didn't like it at all; she's seen what happens to herself when something of an outside force thinks it is its prerogative to interfere. This is what happens when that outside force decides to stop her from making a kill to a somewhat-doubtful liar whilst sane.

She goes the opposite.

She returns to that primal madness that is constantly welled up within her, boiling over the edges of her sanity and then, only then, will it overflow and cover her very being, submersing her consciousness within the confines of a tiny little haven away from the madness.

This has only happened once, and the only way to get her out of this state of madness was...well...unpleasant. Let's just say she almost lost her head because of what they did. If it wasn't for her blackened blood and her extremely fast healing rate, she would have died instantly as soon as the shovel of that one farmer dug into her neck.

While in this state, the madness becomes one form, one thing that controls her body as usual, except...she can't leave it as easily, if at all. No, she knows she can't leave it, yet she retreats to it anyway. Why does she do that? Simple, she has only ever made on true friend, even Rosemary Schnee wasn't a true friend; her madness was her friend, her companion. It was as warm as a lover's arms at night, as calm as a beating heart, as soothing as the rhythm of piano music, as humorous as a comedian; the madness _was_ her friend; that, _that_, is why she retreats to its' warm embrace.

This has only happened once, of course. She still has that demonic smile, that maniacal laugh and that glint in her teeth and the shaking of the now blackened pupils.

What's the only difference? Every other time she was only hip-deep in insanity. Now; well, now she's completely submerged under it, a thick blood red and pitch black ocean swallowing her further every move to escape she makes, causing her to give in and wait it out.

Who knows how long it could be; hours, days, years? Hell, if she was lucky- or unlucky, on your perspective- she would get free of this maddened madness and return to her normal madness in mere minutes. She wasn't prepared to face the consequences while sane yet. Hell, she barely managed to talk to her teammates about her robotic enhancements- one of- without having a full blown insanity-induced heart attack.

So, her consciousness sat in the backseat while insanity took the wheel.

And her sanity chose to turn a blind eye as well.

(^^^^^^)

Neo watched on as she ignored Qrow's warnings and questions, standing there with a small smile.

Seeing Ruby again was certainly...well, it could be called an experience, but to her, experiences didn't laugh their demented, tortured little heads off while they butchered entire families- regardless if she remembered it or not. Neo was, now, truly...well...happy, to see Ruby again.

She was always such a character, her insanity such fun to deal with, her innocence slightly adorable as well as her lack of knowledge on the basic necessities of life- she remembers watching from afar as Ruby stared for almost an hour at a plastic bottle, trying to figure out what went in it and what they were used for.

While reminiscing, she had just barely enough time to dodge a flaming fireball aimed right at her head.

Neo smiled, she did enjoy watching her former friends- even if they could not really remember her- fight with the courtesy to enjoy it.

But then her smile faded; Ruby was enjoying this too much...then it hit her; Ruby truly did not remember her. To her, Neo was just another person in her way to her intended target. She almost missed the shadows coming at her from the sides.

She completely missed the glyph behind her.

As she back flipped, dodging the shadows that were aimed at her head by a centimetre, she landed right on the glyph, which changed colour almost immediately, switching to black and pinning her to the ground. She found herself unable to move. _'A Gravity glyph... That's new. Well, the ability to use glyphs and fire is new completely. Does she have three semblances? No, then she wouldn't have used those shadows earlier: Four, maybe? That's...'_

A fireball slammed into her body, knocking her free of the glyph and right into the wall occupying the students and teachers. As she hit the wall, her thought process carried on as she lifted herself off and dusted off her jacket/corset.

'_Hmm... I don't remember her being able to have this many semblances. Last I heard, it was impossible to have more than two, because three could rip you apart and if you had any more than that...it wasn't pretty.'_ She stared at Ruby, who was hunched over at a ninety degree angle, as if trying to remember something as she was being scolded. _'She looks like she's thinking. Odd, I thought she would have been sprinting at me, laughing all the way. She's not even making a...sound...'_ Realisation hit her like a ton of bricks to the face, causing her to almost shake in fear at this version of Ruby.

She knew what she was, what had happened , what needed to be done.

She knew what Cinder had told her as well, and that was not to fight back, only to compromise.

With this Ruby, there was only calculation, madness, blood and death; not even a peep, no laughter, no noise, nothing.

...Nothing but pure madness...

...Nothing.

"Oh fuck all kinds of duck." she exclaimed.

Then the battle truly began.

(^^^^^^)

_She liked this place, it was warm and bright, filled with the sun and the moon and the stars. She liked this place, filled with halos of light and warm feelings. She liked this place..._

_...now she just hated it._

_It wasn't warm and soft, cosy and nice. It was cold, desperate and maddening._

_This place __**was**__ madness._

_Heh, for a minute there she almost grinned; well, she would have if it wasn't too scary considering where she was. She looked around, spotting three roads, all with signs._

_She looked up towards the 'sky'; if it could be called that anyway. It was as black as night, with specks of red that dotted the harsh terrain of the area above her head, marking stars crimson coloured. The clouds were red, and in the distance she could see what seemed to be rain. Odd, this place never rained, not even when it got bad. No, this wasn't her sanctuary anymore; this was her mind's tomb._

_Her mind's prison_

_She looked back down to the signs in front of her, and the roads stretching out in the left, right and straight ahead directions, starting as a fork-road would and branching off in their respectful directions. _

_The left sign said, as clear as day- considering the conditions there- 'Memories'._

_She looked to the one on the right, marked 'emotion'._

_She tried to avoid looking at the third one, knowing what it would say. Even if her mind had changed so much, these signs were always here, still there, never changed, a swell as the paths they led to. She could feel her eyes sliding off into that direction, and her whole body as well with them, looking at the last sign..._

_...'Madness'._

_Of course, there were three things on her mind right now; why, when and where. She had the __**where**__ covered- her mind of course, obviously._

_She had the __**why**__ covered; to escape her madness- which meant not taking the middle road. But then that also meant having to traverse her memories- some of which she would rather forget- and her emotions- something quite unfamiliar to her. _

_The when...when did she get here? She can't remember, but oh well, she looks to the left and right signs, finally going in one direction with a non-committed shrug of her shoulders._

_She followed the path, and went through a trip that could very well change her life._

(^^^^^^)

Blake stared, and stared, and stared. Her eyes wide, her posture rigid and her arms and legs numb. She couldn't do anything, only watch. And she hated it. No, she loathed it. She wanted to help the new person and Ruby, but choosing one would mean deciding the fate of the other, and she simply could not do that.

She looked behind her, over her shoulder and saw Yang being dragged in, still snoring, by her feet, Weiss and Ozpin being the people pulling her.

Ozpin almost dropped her when he saw the state of which his courtyard and building were in; chunks of debris littered the area, masses of dust and wood clumped around, plaster and remnants of brick swamped the outside and side of the wall.

It was, to put simply, a mess.

Ozpin looked worried, the second emotion he has ever shown in front of a student this year, the first student being Ruby.

Blake was, unluckily, the second.

Unlucky, simply because she saw the urgency in the professor's eyes, the gleam on his glasses, and the dropping of his mouth. This look said it all; someone was going to die if he didn't stop it.

Blake rushed over and wordlessly grabbed Yang, helping Weiss lift her as Ozpin stormed over, reaching into his pocket with one hand as the other gripped his cane and he took long strides and stepped over the debris littering the area.

He was a true man on a mission.

The mission? Save Beacon and the new strange girl form sudden death at the hands of the most powerful and insane person he had ever known.

And, hopefully, save Ruby from herself.

(^^^^^^)

Neo's mind took her to a memory, something she thought she abandoned as soon as she got it, but it was still there, and she suddenly froze up as a fireball slammed into her aura, knocking her out and putting her aura in the dangerous zone of red.

With her last bouts of consciousness, she looked up at the sky, and that was when her mind took her away to a dangerous place.

_Undetermined time, when Ruby was seven._

"N-Neo?"

Neo turned her head and looked at the skittish seven year old in front of her. Neo happened to be passing by when humans and Faunus alike decided to perform public torture. They had stabbed her, almost sliced one of her ears off and punctured one of her ribs.

Yet she still stood, and Neo came in to save the girl before more damage, lest they kill her, be done.

So she killed them, and decided to bring the girl along with her.

She looked at Ruby and raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Red?" Red was a simple nickname she gave her, and it seemed to fit her well.

Ruby looked at her feet, and withdrew something from her pocket, holding it up to Neo and placing it in her palm, which confused the multi-coloured girl greatly. "H-Here. I...uh...F-Found this..."

Neo looked down at her hand and saw a large pink gem of some sort, one side slightly browned, the other a bright pink, almost translucent.

Neo looked back at Ruby with genuine confusion. "How did you get this? This must cost a fortune!"

Ruby looked almost...sad. "D-Do you not L-L-Like it?"

"No, I like it, a lot, but why did you give this to me, and where did it come from!?"

Ruby looked around, sheepishly avoiding Neo, looking everywhere but her. "Well...I-I-In a P-Person's...pocket."

Neo looked incredulous. "You...mean to tell me that you ...pick-pocketed?"

Ruby flinched, waiting for a punch. She opened her eyes when nothing came, only Neo looking at her weirdly. "I...I-I Uh...Do it A-All the T-Time."

Neo looked at her again, then at the gem, and after putting the gem in the front pocket of her corset/jacket, she looked over to Ruby. "Show me."

Ruby looked completely confused. "S-Show you W-What?"

"Show me how to pick-pocket."

And so, Ruby taught her new friend, her only friend, to pick-pocket, after giving her many shaky warnings that she should only do it for survival, not fun or want. She was taught by Neo the pressure points on a person, not that Ruby would be any good at exploiting them or would actually work up the courage to use them, and was also taught the specifics of toxins, more specifically poisons and knock-out gases.

Many weeks later, they had become best friends, and Neo took her on a trip through a nearby forest, gripping Ruby's hand as gently as she could. Neo was Ruby's best friend, but the concept still confused Ruby. Neo had told her it was like friends, but only more than friends, but not quite past the stage of friendship. This completely baffled her, and so she just took it with gusto...

...too bad that gusto didn't give her common sense to grab and bring her weapon with her.

Neo was armed with that umbrella-gun thing, but that didn't stop the beowolves from descending upon Ruby and wrapping their jaws neatly around her arm.

Neo saw the whole thing, and desperately tried to fight them off. She killed them all, and went to get help, but when she came back with a few doctors and nurses a mere two minutes later, all that could be seen was a smudge of red and a torn, blood red arm...

...with no body attached.


End file.
